In what could be one of the biggest operations of its kind in the border belt in recent times, security forces on Sunday managed to neutralise two more terrorists who had attacked the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot in Punjab. As combing operations continued throughout the day with stray firing being heard till late in the evening, there could be the possibility of one more terrorist being holed up there, officials said.
Even as six terrorists were neutralised in the two-day-long operation, the casualty figure on the side of the security forces rose to seven, including one officer of the National Security Guard (NSG), who died in the counter-offensive against the Pakistan-based terrorists. Apart from the seven casualties, 12 security personnel are also injured.
As security forces battled terrorists in Pathankot, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the terror strikes would have been more severe but for Intelligence reports on Friday warning about the impending attack . “If not for Intelligence reports, the attacks would have been more severe,” Singh told reporters.
Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told the media in New Delhi that the terrorists failed to destroy vital IAF assets due to timely action by security forces.
“Because of early action, the terrorists were unable to move to their likely intended aim but were contained in an area of heavy growth of trees and shrubs and surrounded,” Mehrishi said in New Delhi. He also said that the security forces had sounded an alert in the area, including the IAF base near Pathankot, ahead of the pre-dawn attack on Saturday.
Meanwhile, security at Hindon Air Force base on the outskirts of the national Capital has been stepped up and a high alert sounded in the wake of the terror strike. Senior Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Singh said that a combing operation was conducted in areas surrounding the Air Force station.
“All senior police officers and personnel from various police stations were immediately summoned and a combing operation was conducted in all residential colonies and villages situated adjacent to the Air Force station’s boundary wall fencing,” Singh said.
Security agencies in Punjab are also investigating the movement of the terrorists 24 hours before they launched the fidayeen attack, especially in context of the resources they may have used to reach the high-security target after sneaking into India from the border with Pakistan.
The security and investigation agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), are trying to reconstruct events from the night of December 30-31 to the terror attack on the base around 3.30 am on Saturday. They want to know how the terrorists could easily make it to the frontier IAF base despite Intelligence inputs that they were going to target a high-profile Defence target in the area.
Punjab, which faced two terror attacks in six months, on Sunday announced deployment of a commando battalion and a special SWAT team in Pathankot as a “second line of defence” and also sought deployment of more BSF troops along the State’s border with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, even as the combing operation at Pathankot was halted late in the evening, officials remained tight-lipped about the number of terrorists still at large saying that at least one more could be in the area. A strong posse of security forces from the NSG, Army, Air Force and Punjab Police has ensured that there is no escape from the area. The combing operation would begin at the break of dawn, a senior Punjab Police official indicated.
The security forces were surprised on Sunday morning during combing operation when they found that firing was coming from two different sides, suggesting that there were at least two terrorists in different directions on the prowl. On Saturday, it was believed that there were only four terrorists and all of them had been neutralised.
“The operation is still continuing. The engagement is still on. Operation will continue till the whole air base has been cleared of any intruders, any terrorist,” Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Pathankot Air Force Station (AFS), told the media. “Today (Sunday) morning, two (terrorists) were engaged. This operation is at the completion stage,” Dhamoon said.
Four terrorists were killed on Saturday in a 15-hour gunfight in which the NSG, Indian Army and IAF commandos were involved, assisted by IAF attack helicopters.
The terrorists were engaged in the outer periphery of the IAF base and could not reach the technical area, where the IAF’s MIG-21 fighter jets, MI-35 attack helicopters and other critical assets are stationed.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal underscored the need for a more cautious and strict approach to combat cross-border terrorism in the country in an effective manner, saying that both the Centre and the State Governments must work closely to attain this goal. “It is high time that both the Centre and the State Governments evolve a consensus to deal with such dastardly acts,” Badal said, adding that such incidents must be dealt with a heavy hand so as to avoid any threat to unity and integrity of the nation.
The Chief Minister bemoaned that some political parties were trying to taking political mileage out of this issue. “Political parties must learn from past experiences and refrain from politicizing the issues of grave national importance,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal urged the Central Government to enhance deployment of adequate BSF personnel along the 553-km-long Punjab-Pakistan border to curb intrusion. He announced that Punjab will fortify its second defence line equipped with ultra-modern security gadgets by deploying a commando battalion at all vulnerable points near the border in the State.
On a visit to Pathankot, Sukhbir, also the Home Minister of the State, urged the Union Government to install sophisticated scientific and intelligence gadgets at the earliest along the fence at the International Border so as to prevent cross-border infiltration of trained terrorists and smugglers.
“We are always on guard against terrorists and smugglers in the border belt but more BSF personnel should be deployed for patrolling along the barbed wire to control the intrusion”, he said, urging the Center to declare the Punjab-Pakistan border as a sensitive boundary.