Pathankot: Kashmir-based militant coalition claims attack

A Kashmir-based aggressor coalition has said it completed the dangerous assault on an Indian flying corps base.

The United Jihad Council - a coalition of aggressor gatherings battling Indian principle in Kashmir - guaranteed its "national roadway squad" was dependable. The assault on the Pathankot airbase close to the outskirt with Pakistan is seen as an endeavor to crash late peace moves by Pakistan and India.

Indian PM Narendra Modi has held a meeting to talk about the attack. Five aggressors and seven Indian officers have so far been killed amid three days of battling.

The UJC said it needed to show India that no security foundation was out of scope of aggressors, and to commute home the point that Kashmiris are the primary party to the regional debate in the middle of India and Pakistan and can't be disregarded.

Who are the UJC? The BBC's M Ilyas Khan clarifies

The United Jihad Council was framed in 1994 to co-ordinate assets and arrangements to hit military focuses in Indian Kashmir among more than twelve gatherings situated in Pakistani-directed Kashmir. Those gatherings were broadly seen as being united by Pakistan's ISI knowledge office.

The UJC is driven by Mohammad Salahuddin, the pioneer of the ace Pakistan Hezbul Mujahideen bunch, the biggest in the partnership. The initiative of the majority of these gatherings is situated in Pakistan, and they have been to a great extent lethargic since the 2003 truce hanging in the balance of Control (LoC), the accepted limit isolating Kashmir.

So the case by the UJC to have completed this most recent assault is liable to reinforce the perspective that it was approved by the Pakistani armed force to undermine Mr Modi's late peace suggestions to Pakistan's non military personnel government. The Pakistani military has been blamed for attacking the regular citizen drove standardization process with India on a few events before.

Throughout the weekend some Indian security authorities recommended the Pakistan-based Islamist aggressor bunch Jaish-e-Mohammed was to be faulted. India says the gathering is supported by Pakistan, however Islamabad denies this.

As the firearm fight proceeded between Indian troops and aggressors at Pathankot, Indian TV stations reported that a noisy blast was heard at the base.

All streets prompting the base have been shut. On Monday evening, a senior security official told a question and answer session that all families living on the base were protected and "every key resource [helicopters, flying machine and other military hardware] were secured".

Maj-Gen Dushyant Singh, from India's first class National Security Guard, said it would take "quite a while" to pronounce the base totally secure, on account of its size and topography. In the interim, police in Punjab's Mohali area said they had captured three men with unlawful arms and recuperated a Pakistani "SIM card" from them. It is not yet clear whether the men had any association with the assault, police said.

The Pathankot assault started before dawn on Saturday, when a group of gunmen - wearing Indian army uniforms - entered the residential quarters on the base.Hours of heavy gunfire followed and a helicopter was seen firing at the facility on Sunday.

The assault is being seen as a hit to a clear Indo-Pakistani peace activity dispatched days prior. Seeks after a defrost in relations were raised after Mr Modi paid an unforeseen visit to his Pakistani partner, Nawaz Sharif.

Pakistan's remote service and the US state division have denounced the assault. Pathankot aviation based armed forces base is around 430km (270 miles) north of the Indian capital, Delhi, and is out and about connecting Indian-regulated Kashmir with whatever is left of the nation.

Indian-controlled Kashmir has seen a long-running revolt against principle from Delhi, and Kashmir has been a flashpoint in relations in the middle of Pakistan and India for about 70 years since autonomy.

The Pathankot air force base extends over about 2,000 acres, including some areas covered with tall vegetation.

The base's commanding officer Lt-Col JS Dhamoon has described it as a "mini-city". It includes homes and a school for the children of air force personnel.

Pathankot is home to a fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware.

The base and the state of Punjab as a whole has "probably the highest concentration of military personnel in India because it's so close to the border with Pakistan," analyst Rahul Bedi from Jane's Information Group told AP.

It occupies a highly strategic position on the main highway connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country. It is also very close - about 35km - to the border with Pakistan.