New Delhi, Jan 2 (EFE).- At least five insurgents and two members of India's air force died and six others were wounded early Saturday in an attack on a military base in the northwestern state of Punjab, where operations were ongoing to clear the area, officials said.
The attack was launched at 3:30 a.m. and led to clashes between the security forces and insurgents lasting at least five hours, a senior police official in Punjab, H.S. Dhillon, told the PTI news agency.
A source with India’s armed forces told EFE that the operation was still continuing at the site of the attack, the Pathankot air force base, which is located a few miles from the border with Pakistan.
Aerial surveillance detected the assailants when they arrived at the base since the air force was on alert for a possible attack and had taken measures to repel it, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The attackers «were confronted immediately and confined to a limited area,» the ministry said, adding that they were thus prevented from entering an area of the base where highly valuable assets are located.
The air force is working in coordination with the army, the National Security Guard and the local police, the statement added.
The police spokesman in Pathankot, Naresh Singh, confirmed to EFE that five attackers were killed and at least two military personnel died during the incident.
«Pakistan is our neighbor and we want peace, but any terrorist attack on India will get a befitting response,» Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh told the Indian news agency Asian News International.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, for his part, told reporters that the government had «credible» information indicating the attack was «sponsored by some groups on the other side of the border.»
Punjab borders Muslim-majority Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan that has been at the root of two wars and several smaller conflicts since the partition of the subcontinent and the creation of those two countries in 1947.
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