The terror attack on the Pathankot Indian Air Force base fails to deter India and Pakistan from continuing the dialogue process in right earnest.
The failed terror attack on the strategically located Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot, Punjab, on January 2 was an obvious attempt to derail the dialogue process between India and Pakistan. Around the same time that the airbase was targeted, there was an attempt to storm the Indian Consulate in the Afghan city of Mazhar-i-Sharif. Prompt action by Afghan security forces foiled that attempt. Afghan officials said the militants who tried to storm the consulate were well trained and highly motivated.
The Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan were scheduled to be held on January 15. The dates were announced soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif’s private residence in Lahore on December 25 on his way back from Moscow. The Indian authorities said the terror attack, which took place barely a week after Modi’s visit, was the handiwork of the Pakistani radical group Jaishe-Mohammad (JeM). The JeM leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, was one of the three prisoners freed by India in 1999 in exchange for the Indian Airlines plane that was hijacked to Kandahar.
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