Call intercepts reveal Pathankot terrorist informed his mother about the suicidal mission: Sources

The intelligence agencies had intercepted a call of one of the terrorists of the Pathankot attack which indicated towards the mission. In the intercepted call, the alleged terrorist spoke to his mother and informed her about the suicidal mission.

As per sources, the call also suggests that seven terrorists attacked the Pathankot air base. The attack took place on Saturday and killed 4 security personnel. Four terrorists have also been killed in the encounter.

Intelligence sources suggest that it was a well planned attack by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM).

There were four calls that took place between attackers and handlers between 12-30 AM to 2-30 AM on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. The conversations were made in Punjabi and Multani language where the handlers briefed locations to the attackers.

They were asked to enter Pathankot IAF base and cause maximum damage to air force assets, specifically planes and helicopters. Intercepts suggest that all the attackers came from Bahawalpur and Multan in Pakistan.

As per sources, the attackers came in two cars and entered India on December 30. Sources also suggest that Kashmir was not the target of the terror operation.

In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed terrorists, struck at the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab leading to a fierce gunbattle in which four security personnel were killed along with four attackers.

The terrorists could not, however, penetrate the defence cordon at the Air base which is located close to the border with Pakistan as they met with effective response from the security forces. Authorities claimed that the helicopters and other equipment at the Air base along with the technical area of the Air Force station were safe.

Anticipating an attack after some armed men abducted SP of Punjab Police Salwinder Singh on Thursday night, a team of National Security Guard (NSG) commandos had been rushed on Friday night. The National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had held a series of meetings with the Army Chief and top IB officials on Friday. An army detachment was also positioned at the Air base, the sources said. The operation is being supervised directly by the National Security Adviser.