Gunmen Attack Indian Air Force Base Near Pakistan Border

Four gunmen and two Indian guard have been killed in an attack on an Indian air force base near the border with Pakistan, in an apparent attempt to derail a thaw in relations between the neighbors.

Indian defence ministry sources said four gunmen, believed to be from Pakistan, entered the Pathankot airbase in India’s northwestern state of Punjab overnight. The four were confirmed dead in the ensuing fighting, along with the two guards.

Reports suggested the attack was ongoing, with fresh gunfire heard and at least one helicopter seen firing at an area inside the base.

The attack, the most serious of its kind in recent years, came a week after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu visit to Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, in a bid to revive bilateral talks that had previously been derailed by militant attacks.

The visit was seen as a potential sign of thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The two heads of government also had an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the violence, which began in 1989.

“The moment that Modi touched down in Lahore (and probably even before), something like this was doomed to happen,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

“At this point, there’s sufficient goodwill in India-Pakistan relations to weather this attack. Saboteurs won’t win this one,” he said.

Border police chief Vijay Singh said the operation to eliminate the gunmen had lasted three hours. The airbase was being combed to determine the fate of the remaining attackers.

According to news reports, the gunmen wore army uniform. One Indian security source blamed the attack on a Pakistan-based militant group, but said it posed no threat to civilians.

Air force spokeswoman Rochelle D’Silva says the gunmen entered the living quarters of the base, about 430km north of New Delhi, but were not able to penetrate the area with fighter helicopters and other equipment.

The raid resembled an assault last July by gunmen on a police post in a Punjabi border town that killed nine people. However, Saturday’s pre-dawn attack appeared to have been much more audacious by targeting a large military facility.

One Indian home ministry official said Punjab and Jammu states were on high alert and all defence bases had been sealed.

“Attacking an air base is a serious security threat. The new strategy of the terrorists is to identify defence bases near the border and launch attacks,” said the official, who was not authorised to comment on the record.