NEW DELHI – Not keeping in mind the fact that Pakistan has already paid aheavy price for the Indian sponsored terrorism for last 17 years theIndia’s defence minister has said that Pakistan “will pay” for the attackon the army base in IHK.

Indian Army has been failing to curb the homegrown insurgency in occupiedKahsmir which has repeatedly been admitted by its own commanders andpoliticians.

Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who visited the injured inhospital, said that counter-terror operations at the camp had been calledoff on Monday.

“Our intelligence inputs indicate that these terrorists were beingcontrolled by their handlers from across the border,” she told reporters.

“Pakistan is expanding the arc of terror… resorting to ceasefireviolations (on the border) to assist infiltration. Pakistan will pay forthis misadventure,” she said.

Sitharaman also corrected the earlier death toll given by police, who saidten including four attackers had been killed in the attack.

“The terrorists have been eliminated although there was information of fourterrorists in the area… likely that the fourth (attacker) was a guide anddidn’t enter the premises,” the minister said, putting the overall toll atnine.

The intruders took positions inside a residential complex meant forsoldiers’ families as the army launched a counter-offensive to drive themout.

Hindu-majority Jammu, located in the foothills of the mountainous region,is relatively peaceful but has repeatedly seen suspected militant assaultson military bases close to the frontier with Pakistan.

Saturday’s attack comes 18 years after a similar militant attack on thebase in 2003 that killed 12 soldiers.