India links Pakistan to deadly air base attack
India has blamed Pakistan over a January militant attack on a military air base that killed seven soldiers in the northern state of Punjab.
Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday that the militants could not have carried out the brazen attack on the heavily-guarded base near the Pakistan border without Islamabad's support.
The minister also noted that National Investigation Agency (NIA), a federal police unit that investigates terror offences, is carrying out a probe into the case.
"Pakistan's non-state actors were definitely behind the attack. Also, no non-state actor from there (Pakistan) can function smoothly without the state's support," Parrikar told parliament in New Delhi, adding, "The entire details of the attack will only come out in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigation."
India has blamed militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group for the assault on the site in Pathankot district, which is located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Pakistan border.
The militants are one of more than a dozen similar groups operating in Kashmir for either independence from India or a union with Pakistan.
Indian officials earlier said the January 2 assault bore the hallmarks of previous attacks by Pakistan-based militant groups. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside the disputed region of Kashmir came days after Indian Premier Narendra Modi's surprise visit to the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore for a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in late December.
The militant assault led to the postponement of peace talks planned between the rivals in January.
In recent weeks, Pakistan has detained some suspects in connection with the Pathankot terror attack. Islamabad has also vehemently denied any involvement of its state institutions in terror attacks on Indian soil.
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