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Pathankot: US expects that Pakistan will take actions against perpetrators

by IBNS 05 Jan 2016, 08:01 am

Washington, Jan 5 (IBNS): The US has said it is expecting that Pakistan will take actions against the perpetrators who attacked the Pathankot Airbase in Punjab.

"I would note that the Government of Pakistan also publicly and privately condemned this recent attack on the Indian airbase. And we’ve been clear with the highest levels of the Government of Pakistan that it must continue to target all militant groups, and the Government of Pakistan has said publicly and privately that it’s not going to discriminate among terrorist groups as part of its counterterrorism operations," US  state department Spokesman John Kirby told media.

"So I think as I’ve said before, this is a shared challenge that we all face in the region. And we in the United States want everybody to treat it as a shared challenge. And the Government of Pakistan has spoken to this, has spoken very powerfully to this, and it’s certainly our expectation that they’ll do exactly what – they’ll treat this exactly the way they’ve said they will," he said.

Kirby said Pakistan has also suffered due to the problem of terrorism over the years.

"And Pakistan too has suffered from terrorism. Thousands and thousands of Pakistani soldiers have been killed. Thousands of Pakistani citizens – innocent Pakistani citizens – have been killed or injured by terrorist attacks. The Pakistani Government, the Pakistani people very much understand the threat here. And what we want and what we continue to say we want and will continue to work for is increased cooperation, communication, coordination; increased information sharing and increased efforts against what we all believe is a shared challenge in the region," he said.

The operation by National Security Guard (NSG) commandos at the Pathankot Airbase in Punjab, which has been attacked by militants since Saturday, is still going on.

The NSG  on Monday declared that it has eliminated five terrorists so far.
 
"The operations are still going on. We have eliminated the fifth terrorist," an NSG Official told media on Monday.
 
The official also told that they will continue the operation till the area is rendered safely.