Pathankot attack: Operation to flush out terrorists still on; Modi chairs high level meet with NSA

Pathankot: Security forces battled into Sunday evening to secure the Pathankot air base near the border with Pakistan, a day after a militant attack that has killed seven military personnel and wounded another 20.

Some 29 hours after gunmen entered the Pathankot air base in Punjab, firing indiscriminately, confusion reigned over whether two or more terrorists were still at large after four were confirmed killed on Saturday evening.

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"The area cannot be declared fully sanitised," Air Marshal Anil Khosla told a news briefing in New Delhi.

Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters he hoped the two believed still to be at large would be "neutralised" by Sunday evening. Without recovering their bodies they could not be confirmed dead.

That contradicted earlier statements by home ministry and army officials who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two holdouts had been killed.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting with the NSA and the Foreign Secretary among other officials to discuss the situation. 

The attack by gunmen disguised as soldiers came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive talks between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Gunfire continued into the evening as security forces hunted the remaining attackers in the Indian Air Force base, a sprawling compound that lies just 25 km from the border with Pakistan.

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Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG's Bomb Disposal Squad and a Kerala resident, was killed while he was trying to retrieve a live grenade from the body of a dead terrorist at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast.

While a Garud commando and three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) were killed in the gunbattle on Saturday, three DSC men succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night.

Four Pakistan-based terrorists had also been killed during Saturday's gunbattle at the airbase, located barely 35 kms from the Indo-Pak border.

Among those battling for their lives in the hospital are 8 DSC personnel and a Garud commando.

Earlier, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the latest situation at the Pathankot air base. Both were present at a HAL function in Tumakuru in Karnataka.

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The fresh exchange of fire today and the grenade blast occured as the joint combing operation by the armed forces, police and security personnel was still underway and the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday announced financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of Gursevak Singh, a resident of village Garnala in Ambala who was killed in the Pathankot terror attck.

"The Chief Minister has announced a sum of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of martyr Gursevak. Gursevak was a Garud commando. The CM has also extended his condolences to the bereaved family," an official spokesman said here.

He said Health Minister Anil Vij had also visited the martyr's village to console the family and express his condolence.