Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 9: A high level team constituted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for security audit of military installations will shortly visit Jammu and Kashmir to take review of ‘Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Places’ and suggest measures for quick reaction in case of January 2 like Pathankot attack and ensure that the encounters didn’t prolong.
The team is headed by Lt Gen (Retired) Philip Campose, former Vice Chief of Army Staff, who had also served as Western Command chief.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had constituted the team and asked to submit report by March 31, 2016 to help Defence forces take immediate and urgent measures for protection of all defence installations located in `Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Places’ in the entire country including Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, which had been facing series of attacks from the militants.
“The Government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of a former Vice Chief of Army Staff to inter alia suggest measures to strengthen security of various military establishments across the country. The Committee is expected to submit its report by March 31, 2016,” Defence spokesman, Northern Command (MoD) Col SD Goswami told the Excelsior. He said security arrangements in military establishments are dynamic in nature and are periodically reviewed.
“The observations and recommendations of these reviews are progressively implemented to maintain a robust and strong response mechanism to emerging threats,” he added.
Official sources said the team would have detailed security audit of `Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Places’ including the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which would be used to tackle the terror attacks and neutralize the militants as early as possible. The focus, they said, would be to make it impossible for the militants to infiltrate inside the defence installations but, if at all they managed to enter inside the installations, they should be neutralized in the minimum possible time.
“The mobilization of all resources at the command of targeted defence installation, nearby places from where the force can be made available and use of Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) would be part of the security audit, which the high level team would be undertaking,” sources said, adding the focus was on to contain the terror attacks with minimum possible casualties.
The places, where the militants can take shelter after infiltration inside the defence installations and seal them within no time to check the militants, were also part of security audit, sources said, adding involvement of Special Forces from the nearest possible locations and coordination among all security agencies involved in the operation against the militants was high on the agenda.
Noting that some shortcomings were noticed in January 2 Pathankot terror attack and that encounter had also prolonged to four or five days, sources said the focus was now on to end the encounters by eliminating the militants in the shortest possible time as it has been noticed that the militants wanted to linger on the fight to gather national and international focus in which they had succeeded to some extent in Pathankot terror attack.
According to sources, the MoD was concerned over some aspects of Pathankot terror attack and wanted to take remedial measures on the basis of report to be submitted to it by the high level team headed by Lt Gen Philip Campose to ensure that all terror attacks were thwarted well in time and with utmost coordination of all security agencies.
“Coordination among various security agencies, which were generally involved in the operations against terror attacks, would also be suggested by the high level committee,” sources said.
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