Pathankot attack: Security forces tried to catch a terrorist alive before reducing the building to rubble

NEW DELHI: Security forces made an all-out attempt to catch one of the terrorists entrenched at the Pathankot air base alive after instructions from the Centre before reducing the building to rubble late on Sunday night.

Operations at the air base are winding up with six heavily armed terrorists killed after two days of fighting, even though security forces will take time to search the entire area for hidden explosives. Sources on the ground have told ET that the engagement with terrorists stretched to over 40 hours — from 3:30 am on Saturday till 7:30 pm on Sunday — as specific instructions had been received from the Centre to attempt a live capture of at least one of the terrorists.

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While the operation is not over — the entire area has to be combed — the last live engagement with terrorists was on Sunday night. The first four terrorists were killed on Saturday itself in direct engagement with troops. However, operations to isolate two more who were spotted later continued for several hours on Sunday in an attempt to capture one of them alive. Security forces — the NSG as well as Army troops from local formations — brought in heavy weapons and armoured fighting vehicles into the base in an attempt to force out the last two terrorists who had taken shelter in an abandoned two-storied residential building.

"Bullet proof vehicles as well as BMP 2 armoured fighting vehicles were brought in to draw out the terrorists and shells were even fired into the building. By late evening, it was decided to bring down the building and it was set on fire," officials tracking the operations told ET. "The search operations will continue throughout the base, but there has been no live contact with a terrorist since Sunday night. We have been using probing fire at places that we suspect, but there has been no engagement."