Even as the anti-terror operations continue at the Pathankot Air Force base, the National Investigation Agency has started piecing together the puzzle over how the terrorists managed to sneak into the country and launch the brazen attack.
A suspected intruder was shot dead early Thursday by the Border Security Force along the Indo-Pak border in Pathankot where the force is on high alert following the January 2 terror attack on air force base.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the strategic Pathankot Air Force base for a first-hand assessment of the situation in the aftermath of the terror attack last Saturday.
'Had they struck on the night of the 1st, there would have been hell to pay and had they been able to sneak further in, we would have had a greater problem,' says Lieutenant General H S Panag (retd), the former Northern Army Commander.
Subedar Fateh Singh, a 51-year-old Army man who lost his life during combing operations at the Indian Air Force base near Punjab's Pathankot town on Saturday, had won a gold and a silver medal at the first Commonwealth Shooting Championships held in Delhi in 1995.
Meanwhile, a precautionary blackout has been enforfced in the multiple areas amid the esclating tensions between India and Pakistan.
Metal debris was found scattered in three villages of Amritsar district, with some locals claiming them to be parts of missiles. Police are investigating the objects, while the Indian government claims to have foiled Pakistan military's attempts to attack 15 places in northern and western India using missiles and drones. Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated after India launched missile strikes on terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to the April 22 killing of 26 people by terrorists in Kashmir's Pahalgam.
More than 300 flights have been cancelled and at least 25 airports, including Srinagar, have been temporarily shut for operations amid restrictions in the wake of the armed forces launching missile attacks on terror targets in Pakistan on Wednesday morning.
The move has been introduced to check any infiltration of terrorists in the wake of the Pathankot attack.
India is yet to receive visa applications from Pakistan's special investigation team members who are supposed to visit the country to probe the Pathankot terror attack, Indian government sources said.
Since combing operations in the forest near the base have not helped the security forces to find any vehicle used by the second team of terrorists, it is assumed that a local Jaish-e-Mohammed unit must have dropped them close to the base.
After receiving sanction under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA will name Azhar, his brother Rauf Asghar, and handlers of four terrorists -- Qashif Jan and Shaid Latif in the chargesheet to be filed soon, official sources said.
Khan, however, evaded a question on whether Pakistan has no control over the Taliban anymore.
'I've had a 10-and-a-half year journey behind the camera and people don't know who I am.'
Niranjan's lungs got punctured due to the impact of the blast of a grenade that was kept in the pocket of a slain terrorist and the officer died before being taken to hospital.
Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in Pakistan.
The visiting Pakistani JIT will begin recording the statements of the witnesses in the Pathankot terror attack case from Thursday.
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Punjab Police conducted search operation jointly with Himachal Pradesh Police in the hilly areas located in Bhadroya which is in Himachal Pradesh and covered almost 5-6 km of forest area in search operation.
The Pakistani team investigating the Pathankot terror attack will complete its probe this week, a top official said on Monday, days after three suspects in the high-profile case were remanded to police custody.
The IAF is also in the process of finalising a Rs 8,000-crore comprehensive security proposal for its 54 main flying bases in the country.
Defence experts have questioned the way the audacious terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot was handled, with some even saying it was the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "high-risk" mission to Lahore where he met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
In another round of provocative remarks, Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has warned India of more terror attacks.
Pakistan is working on the "leads" provided by India on the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, the foreign office said tonight in a statement whose tone was conciliatory.
A day after National Security Guard Lt Col Niranjan Kumar and Garud Commando Gursewak Singh were slain in the Pathankot air base attack, their remains were brought home for the last rites. Locals, family members and politicians gathered to pay their respects to these heroes.
The NIA chief refrained from naming the terror group responsible for the attack.
NIA officials said the fact that only four AK-47s were recovered from the site and that only four terrorists crossed into Punjab supports this idea.
Since the Pakistani number was under surveillance, security agencies could locate the likely target of the terrorists.
A local resident informed the police about the bag following which the search operation was conducted in Pathankot city and Mamoon Cantonment.
This wireless set is similar to one recovered from the site of attack in Sambha on March 20 last year.
Security was strengthened in Pathankot and Gurdaspur especially Batala town with police along with army and Border Security Forces conducting massive checking operation.
'Jihadi outfits backed by the ISI are now prepared to attack targets not just in J&K, but also in Punjab. This signals an escalation in the range and scope of cross-border terrorism, which cannot be ignored,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy, former high commissioner to Pakistan.
A MiG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed near Halwara air base in Punjab on Tuesday, but the pilot bailed out safely.
The demand for action by Pakistan was made through a joint statement issued after the 2+2 ministerial attended by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
India will decide on going ahead with the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan only after operations to flush out terrorists from the IAF base at Pathankot is over.
India on Thursday said it desires normal relations with Pakistan and it was for that country to create a conducive atmosphere by taking 'credible, verifiable and irreversible' action against cross-border terrorism.
'The Pakistani JIT's visit is the first ever experiment by the two South Asian neighbours to probe a terror attack 'jointly.' Well, it is not unlike the scenario wherein the thief himself is made an investigator,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, mastermind of IC-814 hijack case, are among four persons identified by Indian intelligence agencies as 'handlers' behind the recent Pathankot attack.
?Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said "enemies of humanity" who could not digest India's progress carried out the attack in Pathankot.
The five-member team will be given a detailed presentation before they visit the attack site on Tuesday.
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