Indian forces have killed the last of the six militants who attacked an air force base near the Pakistan border over the weekend, the defense minister said on Tuesday, though soldiers were still searching the base as a precaution. Manohar Parrikar stopped short of saying the operation was finished, but Indian officials have said repeatedly that only six gunmen were involved. Parrikar did not explain how just a handful of gunmen managed to paralyze a large Indian air base for almost four days, insisting that security forces had done "a commendable job." Seven Indian soldiers were killed during the attack. "I see some gaps (in intelligence) but we will be able to understand only after the investigation. But I don't think we compromised on security," he told reporters after touring the scene of the fighting. He noted that the base is large, and wooded in some places, making it difficult to pin down the gunmen. Indian officials had been warned beforehand that an attack could be imminent at the Pathankot base, and had flown commandoes there in case of trouble. The warning came after the gunmen kidnapped an off-duty policeman near the base the day before the attack began, apparently to steal his vehicle. The policeman escaped, and warned security forces that a team of heavily armed militants was in the region. Parrikar said the militants' weapons included AK-47 assault rifles with makeshift rocket launchers attached, mortar rounds that could be fired from the launchers, pistols, and 50-60 kilograms (110-130 pounds) of ammunition. In the first known claim of responsibility, the United Jehad Council, an alliance of 13 Kashmir-based rebel groups, claimed that its "highway squad," which normally attacks military convoys, carried out the attack. Alliance spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain said in a statement to Current News Service, which is based in the Indian portion of Kashmir, that the attack was a message to India that its security forces were not beyond the militants' reach. The council is based in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between the countries but claimed in its entirety by both. Sharad Kumar, chief of India's National Investigation Agency, has said that telephone intercepts suggested the attackers were from Pakistan. He gave no details on those intercepts in an interview on Tuesday with the television news channel Times Now. The attack followed Modi's surprise recent visit to Pakistan and came days before top foreign ministry officials were to meet in Islamabad to discuss a range of outstanding issues, including Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents in its portion of Kashmir. Pakistan denies that and says it only provides moral and diplomatic support. India urges Pakistan to act after air force base attack Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged his Pakistani counterpart on Tuesday to take "firm and immediate action" against those behind an attack on an Indian air force base that left seven soldiers dead. Modi's office said New Delhi had given Islamabad "specific and actionable information" on the audacious attack, which came just days after a landmark visit to Pakistan by the Indian premier raised hopes of improved relations. Security officials suspect the gunmen — five of whom were killed — belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group that staged a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament which brought the two countries to the brink of war. In a statement, Modi's office said Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had telephoned him to discuss the attack on the Pathankot base in the northern state of Punjab near the border with Pakistan. Modi "strongly emphasized the need for Pakistan to take firm and immediate action against the organizations and individuals responsible for and linked to the Pathankot terrorist attack," said the statement. "Specific and actionable information in this regard has been provided to Pakistan." It said Sharif had given assurances that his government would take "prompt and decisive action." The dawn raid on the base triggered a 14-hour gunbattle on Saturday, with fighting continuing on Sunday. The attack was claimed on Monday by the United Jihad Council, an umbrella group for terror outfits fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Indian policeman: Militants abducted me before base attack The day before a deadly assault on an air base in northern India, a police officer returning from a temple was abducted by a group of heavily armed men speaking Urdu, he said on Tuesday. "The minute I saw them I realised that they were terrorists," Police Superintendent Salwinder Singh told media. "One of the gunmen snatched my phone and made calls to Pakistan," Singh said. Urdu, widely spoken in Pakistan, can be mostly understood by Hindi speakers. The colleague Singh called after he was freed treated it as an armed robbery, one in a string of security lapses preceding the Jan. 2 assault on the Pathankot air base that killed 7 Indian security personnel and injured 22. Mobile phone tower records indicate the perpetrators made calls from Singh's phone from inside the air base by mid-afternoon on Jan. 1, according to the Indian Express, some 12 hours before the government said it had detected them through aerial surveillance. Operations to secure the vast air base in Punjab state stretched into a fourth day on Tuesday, as forces cleared the grounds and hundreds of police combed a forested area surrounding the base for possible collaborators. Indian forces had killed five militants involved in the attack, but it was unclear whether more remained at large in the sprawling facility 25 km from the Pakistani border. "We cannot inform whether there are more militants or not," said Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman. The apparently well-planned assault on a strategic military target has cast a shadow over efforts to improve relations between India and Pakistan. Talks between their foreign secretaries are due on Jan. 15. On Monday, the United Jihad Council, an alliance of pro-Pakistan militant groups based in the Pakistani-administered part of the divided Kashmir region, claimed responsibility for the assault, saying in a statement that "no sensitive installation of India is out of our reach." India is mulling whether or not to go ahead with the talks with Pakistan, a government official said on Monday, and would reach a decision after operations at the air base are concluded. Pakistan has strongly condemned the incident. Its foreign ministry said the government was committed to a "sustained dialogue process" and that India had shared leads on the assault.
