Qualla: 2016 Pathankot Attack

2016 Pathankot Attack: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The floodlights along the perimeter wall were not working. It was just after 3:30 in the morning on January 2, 2016, and at least six men in Indian Army fatigues were scaling the 11-foot wall of the Pathankot Air Force Station, hauling some 50 kilograms of ammunition, 30 kilograms of grenades, and assault rifles over the top. One attacker may have bent a eucalyptus tree growing beside the fence to reach the wall's crest. By the time anyone inside the base realized what was happening, the infiltrators had pushed 400 meters through a forested stretch of the compound, moving toward some of the Indian Air Force's most valuable aircraft.

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla

2016 Pathankot Attack: A Taxi, a Slit Throat, and a Lost Walkie-Talkie

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The attack's origins trace to the night of December 31, 2015, when four men who had crossed the international border from Pakistan stopped a taxi driver named Ikagar Singh on a road near Pathankot. Singh fought back. They slit his throat and took his car, but the tires burst afte...

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla

2016 Pathankot Attack: Seventeen Hours Under Fire

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Garud commandos -- the Indian Air Force's special operations unit -- intercepted the attackers roughly 700 meters from the parked aircraft, preventing what could have been catastrophic destruction of military assets. What followed was a grinding firefight that lasted the better p...

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla

2016 Pathankot Attack: Threads Leading Across the Border

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Phone records painted a damning picture. One of the attackers called a Pakistani number at 9:12 PM on December 31 from the murdered taxi driver's phone. Five hours into the assault on the airbase, another attacker used a stolen mobile phone to call his mother in Pakistan. Indian ...

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla

2016 Pathankot Attack: A Peace Process Derailed

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The timing was not coincidental. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a surprise visit to Pakistan just days earlier, stopping in Lahore on December 25, 2015 to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- the first visit by an Indian leader in over a decade. The diplomatic moment...

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla

2016 Pathankot Attack: What the Inquiry Found

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A parliamentary committee that investigated the attack did not spare the Indian military establishment. The perimeter wall was poorly guarded. The base lacked a patrol road around its circumference. Despite advance intelligence warnings about a possible cross-border infiltration,...

Read more: 2016 Pathankot Attack on Qualla