India air base siege: Fifth gunman killed

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>A fifth gunman has been killed in a more than two-day long siege at an air base near India’s border with Pakistan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least one attacker remains and operations to comb and secure the base continue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Major General Dushyant Singh&comma; from India’s elite National Security Guard&comma; told reporters that search operations at the Pathankot air force base will continue until all areas have been completely secured&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The attack at the Pathankot air base began early on Saturday morning and has dragged on as government troops struggle to contain the heavily armed attackers in the sprawling station&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At least twice over the weekend it appeared that the attack had ended but fresh gunfire and explosions erupted both times&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Four attackers were reported killed by Saturday evening&comma; and at least two were said to have been exchanging gunfire with troops as of Monday morning&period; By evening one had been shot dead&comma; Major Singh said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Defence officials have said authorities had been alerted about a potential attack in the area on Friday&comma; and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the gunmen as they entered the compound&comma; leading to criticism of the handling of the situation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Major Singh told reporters in Pathankot that it will take a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;long time” to declare the base completely secure because of its size and geography&period; It is spread over more than 2&comma;000 acres&comma; including forests and tall grass&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The commanding officer of the base&comma; Lieutenant Colonel JS Dhamoon&comma; described it as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mini-city” with homes and a school for the children of the personnel stationed there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An army statement said the last gunmen were firing from a building that is part of the living quarters on the base&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The base has a fleet of India’s Russian-origin MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters&comma; along with other military hardware&period; Officials have said no military hardware has been damaged in the fighting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Military funerals have been held for the soldiers who were killed in the attack&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Their killings inside a military base despite intelligence alerts have angered many in India&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The biggest problem is the multiplicity of command and control&period; Nobody knows who is really in charge&comma;” said Rahul Bedi&comma; an analyst for Jane’s Information Group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Pathankot base and the northern state of Punjab&comma; where it is located&comma; has &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;probably the highest concentration of military personnel in India because it’s so close to the border with Pakistan&comma;” Mr Bedi said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s a huge embarrassment&comma;” he said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s a major goof-up for everybody&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since Saturday morning&comma; the base has been swarming with air force commandos&comma; army soldiers&comma; National Security Guard troops and local police&period; Officials&comma; however&comma; have refused to say how many security personnel were involved in the engagement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There has also been no clear source of information on the attack for the media&period; Home minister Rajnath Singh even tweeted on Saturday night to congratulate the troops for successfully killing all of the gunmen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The air force base is on the highway that connects India’s insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country&period; It is also very close to India’s border with Pakistan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both&period; Rebels in India’s portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents&comma; a charge Islamabad denies&comma; and the attack is being viewed as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in their relationship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Police said they do not know if the gunmen came from Kashmir or from Pakistan&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No group has claimed responsibility for the attack&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The violence follows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise December 25 visit to Pakistan&comma; where he met his counterpart&comma; Nawaz Sharif&period; The two also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ahead of Mr Modi’s visit to Pakistan&comma; the national security advisers of both countries met in Thailand&period; The foreign secretaries of both nations are to meet in Islamabad later this month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The responses to the attacks from both countries have been muted so far&comma; with neither New Delhi nor Islamabad giving any indication that the planned talks are under any threat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All political parties in India have condemned the attack&comma; but there were no demands that the government call off the talks with Pakistan&period; In the past&comma; when it was in opposition&comma; Mr Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party was a vocal critic of engagement with Pakistan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed11e2ae7ec">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; 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