Tribune News Service,Amritsar, January 10

In the aftermath of the terror attack at the Pathankot air base, security has been beefed up around cantonment areas and other defence establishments in the city.Armed jawans could be seen patrolling around periphery areas while vehicles with heavily armed persons mounted on it found guarding the entrance gates of the cantonment area.Security agencies have been on a high alert in border districts in the wake of the terrorist attack in which six armed ultras of the Pakistan-based terror organisation ‘Jaish-e-Mohammad’ were gunned down Indian soldiers.With rumours of more terrorists on the prowl, security agencies have not been taking any risk. The recent upgrade of the security cover around the Army cantonment and other sensitive defence installations is being seen as a step in this regard.Security at the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee international Airport has also been enhanced with the deployment of a huge number of jawans of the CISF, the Punjab Police and other security agencies.

Security enhanced at airport

• Security at the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee international Airport has also been enhanced with the deployment of a huge number of jawans of the CISF, the Punjab Police and other security agencies

Islamabad, January 11

Pakistan authorities carried out raids at different places and arrested some people during investigations into the attack on an airbase in Pathankot, sources from the country’s intelligence agencies said on Monday.Raids are believed to have been conducted in Gujranwala, Jhelum and Bahawalpur districts, although it is unclear yet how many people have been arrested in connection with investigations. Police have yet to ascertain if those arrested were involved with the attack.The arrests led Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order a Joint Investigation Team of IB, Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Federal Investigation Agency and Police to thoroughly probe the Pathankot attack links to Pakistan.Sharif’s decision to form the JIT came after the leads provided by India which has linked the Foreign Secretary-level talks, scheduled for January 15, to Islamabad’s decisive action on the Pathankot terror attack.The decision to form the JIT, comprising officials from Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Sharif recently, a media report said.Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, National Security Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar attended the meeting.Prime Minister Sharif “is taking an active role in getting to the bottom of the Pathankot incident,” a Prime Minister’s House source was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.“He also discussed the issue with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif and took him on board about the decision to form a JIT,” the source added.”This investigation will be a major test of the Prime Minister to move Pakistan-India relationship forward and to break the cycle of off-again on-again talks between the two neighbours,” the source added.In a pre-dawn attack on January 2, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists, suspected to be belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit, struck at the Air Force base in Pathankot.Indian intelligence reports suggested that groups and people in Pakistan planned and executed the strike. India has provided “specific and actionable information in this regard” to Pakistan.The evidence is said to include some voice recordings and the cellular phone numbers of the attackers’ handlers which were traced to Pakistan.Sharif has assured leaders from India and the US that Pakistan will investigate the matter and make the results public. — PTI

No clarity on number of terrorists after firing, explosions inside Air Force base in ‘afternoon’; martyrs’ toll climbs up

Tribune News Service,New Delhi, January 3

Indicating that it was unsure of how many terrorists were holed up in the Pathankot air base premises, the Centre today said that the security forces had contained two terrorists in a specified area, besides neutralising four of them. Yesterday, the Punjab DGP had put the figure of those gunned down at five. The counter-terror operations continued for the second consecutive day and the forces would be able to sanitise the campus by night, as the operation was in its last leg, the government hoped. There was no news of that till last reports came in.Editorial: Stay the Lahore courseUnion Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, at a press conference, refused to take questions on the contradiction between his claim that the “operation continues” and that of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who yesterday said in a Twitter post that the operation had ended with the killing of five terrorists. Rajnath, however, later deleted his Twitter post.Mehrishi said, “We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing has come from two places. But we are not sure whether there are some more. We will come to know the number of terrorists only after completion of the operation and body count.”While confirming that four terrorists were killed in the gunfight yesterday and the firing resumed today afternoon at two places in the air base, Mehrishi, when asked repeatedly about the Home Minister’s tweets, said, “I am giving you authentic information and I don’t know what others are saying.” Denying any lapse on the part of the security establishment, he said, “Some casualties are obvious when there is an operation of this scale.” He said so far there were seven casualties — six Air Force men, which included five Defence Security Corps personnel and a Garuda commando, and one NSG officer, Lt Colonel Niranjan. Eight IAF personnel and 12 NSG commandos were also injured. Asked when the operation would be over, DG (Air Operations) of IAF Air Marshal Anil Khosla said they were not sure about that.