Pathankot attack LIVE: Parrikar briefs PM Modi about IAF Base terror attack

 Pathankot: A fresh grenade blast ripped through the air force base here this morning claiming the life of an NSG commando, as three other security men succumbed to injuries in a hospital after yesterday’s terror attack taking the toll of Indian security personnel to seven.

• “The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an air force base in the Indian state of Punjab on January 2. We extend our condolences to the victims and their families,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
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• Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the ongoing attack at the Air Force Base in Pathankot where two terrorists are believed to be holed up and a fierce counter-operation is underway to smoke them out.
• Punjab Police will act as the second line of defence whereas BSF will be first line of defence: Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy CM
• Delhi on high alert after Pathankot attack, massive search operation launched
• A fresh anti-Pakistan protest broke out in Pathankot town today with the locals burning an effigy of the neighbouring nation following the terror attack on Air Force base here.
• DIG (Border) Vijay Pratap said that two terrorists are still hiding inside the Air Force Base and the search operation is underway.
• Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG’s Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast.
• Defence sources said Niranjan, a resident of Kerala, was killed while trying to retrieve the grenade from the body of a dead terrorist.
• Three members of the Defence Security Corps (DSC) succumbed to injuries in the hospital here during the night.
• Four attackers, a Garud commando and three DSC were killed yesterday when heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists had attempted to storm the base, triggering a day-long gunbattle at the airbase, barely 35 kms from the Indo-Pak border.
• Among those battling for their lives in the hospital are 8 DSC personnel and a Garud commando.
  Meanwhile, the joint combing operation was still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. Some senior officials of the Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora are also present here