India Charges Pakistan-based Militants Over Air Base Attack

India's top counterterrorism agency has indicted the leader of a Pakistan-based militant group and three others with perpetrating an attack on an Indian air base.

The January attack in northern India left seven soldiers dead and led to a breakdown in relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

India's National Investigative Agency (NIA) filed formal charges on December 19 naming Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Rauf Asghar, and two other members of the group.

All the accused are reportedly living in Pakistan.

The NIA said four gunmen from Pakistan were killed by Indian forces in the January attack.

Initial reports put the number of attackers at six.

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of using JeM as a proxy to launch attacks on Indian soil.

Pakistan banned the group in 2002.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters