Col J P Singh, Retd
On the eve of new year 2016, an outrageous greeting came from across the border that the coming year will not be happy for India. The message was loud and clear. A lethal terrorist attack on Pathankot Airbase, a week after Premier Modi’s spontaneous friendly Lahore visit, has shaken the faith of the nation, both in diplomacy and counter terrorism. The nation is immensely anguished. So am I after hearing a Pak Brigadier mocking and telling a TV anchor on News Hour that India doesn’t have anti terrorist forces as a results militants sneak through BSF, negotiate 500 kms with impunity and the anchor telling him that we have plenty and that is why we saved the airbase whereas Mahruf Raza contradicted him by saying that we have the special forces. I served in the Infantry for 36 years. I was at Chakan-di- Bagh (Poonch) during 1971 war and later. I was in Gambir (Rajouri) for 3 years. I was in IPKF, ‘Op Pawan’ for two and half years. Yet I do not know anything about counter terrorism operations except having heard stories from Sri Lankan officers who had executed anti terrorist operations against LTTTE and another Sinhala militant Communist (M-L) outfit, JVP (Janatha Vimukti Peramun). JVP was founded by Rohana Vijeweera and had carried out two armed uprisings against the govt, first in 1971 and later in 1987. He exploited widespread anti IPKF sentiment of Sinhala people and succeeded in terrorizing the Govt machinery till Sri Laknkan army eliminated him and JVP in 1989. Sri Lankan army is trained by Mossad. Mossad is an elite intelligence collection, covert operations and counter terrorism force of Israel. I am anguished at flaws in security of the air base and the delayed action as well as at some TV debates involving flawless English speaking non professionals and their fault finding on sensitive security matters. Rather than discussing the issue they resort to blame game to score brownie points. However Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha debates were interesting and educative.
I have referred to Mossad in context of Pathankot attack, its alleged linkages with BSF and SP and the drug cartel, because I know of an anti terrorist operation by a Brigadier of Sri Lankan army trained in Israel after his entire family was eliminated by JVP terrorists. On return, he traced the location main JVP HQ in Colombo through a grocery store bills, in Excise Dept office, in favour of a household where unusually large provisions were sold regularly. In a mid night raid, he killed Rohana Vijeweera and subordinate leaders huddled in a huge underground hide out of that building. Vijeweera was reported captured alive, later declared killed. This crippled JVP armed insurrection, a huge relief to the Govt fighting LTTE. Can we or not track & tackle terrorism in a similar manner? As far as I know we do have military relationship with Israel, which is no secret. What is secret is what relationship it is. I wonder we have US and Israeli trained anti terrorist forces which Mahruf Raza was hinting at. Highly trained and motivated forces is the only solution. I think there is such understanding in the security establishment as has been hinted at by Manohar Parriker earlier.
While BJP was rejoicing Lahore visit as a diplomatic victory, the critics, analysts and the opponents were apprehending a misadventure to derail the forward movement as had been the trend in the past. Lo and be’hold, it happened within a week. That is where the American & Israeli angle comes in mind. I am sure Modi knew that to embrace Pakistan would mean inviting trouble like his predecessors. Pt Nehru’s friendly parlays lost India 1/3rd of J&K, Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Tashkant peace agreement lost us strategic Hajipir, Indira Gandhi’s Simla agreement made Pakistan a nuclear power, Vajpayee’s Lahore friendly initiative invited Kargil and Parliament attack and Manmohan Singh’s friendly outreach invited Mumbai attack and beheadings. Pathankot happened is no surprise, but the haste, nature of the target, its intensity, magnitude and nature of reaction is an embarrassment. NSA should have appreciated it and burnt mid night oil to save the embarrassment. BSF should have prevented infiltration to earn OROP.
The fact that Modi did what he did needs guts. Such risk taking boldness is a trait of military leadership. It pleases me that our prime minister has leadership traits similar to leaders of strong nations. Hope he stretches it down to tactical ground realities. He has no choice. His visit to Pathankot airbase on 9 January to get first hand understanding suggests that. Modi would have got the credit had the things gone well and could throw the blame on Pakistan if it didn’t. But even that has not happened. He has not pointed a finger at Pakistan. Instead he called the terrorists as ‘enemies of humanity’. That spares Pakistan govt. Saving grace is that Nawaz Sharif is acting on the evidence provided by India. If Modi goes beyond this, favouring Pakistan, he may get diplomatic gains but would certainly face the wrath of anguished public and military.
Why no lessons were learnt from the past. No satisfactory answer has been given. Anguish of the nation is real. Why don’t we retaliate? Should our leaders be obsessed with image building or nation building? Questions will continue to be raised. Do we have the ability to fight the terrorism in their camps rather than on our door steps. My thoughts go to America & Israel. They have Counter terrorism units which are trained to operate in enemy territory, in order to kill or capture wanted terrorists. Hunting Osama-bin-Laden is the example. History, geography (minus the topography) and security of J&K is related to Israel in many ways and hence we need to learn from others.
It is not that we have not learnt at all from the past but whatever we have learnt is not good enough to prevent suicide mission. In case of Pathankot attack, there was intelligence input. Red alert had been sounded. Pathankot air base was always a lucrative target for Pak terrorists. Many air bases have been attacked in many countries in the past. Successful Taliban attacks on Peshawar and Karachi air bases, in the recent past, are well known. Yet six heavily armed and equipped terrorists breached the periphery and remained hidden inside the airbase for more than 12 hour before striking. It happened because we did not take the intelligence seriously. We had the forces to prevent it but we did not utilize them. We were lucky to defend the strategic assets but seven precious lives were lost. We had a golden opportunity to retaliate but we did not. All that shows that the lapses were there and they are glaring. We as nation are not that young that we continue to make mistakes, forget and be forgiven.
My take on this case is that controversies could have been avoided if an Infantry Bn was given the task of defending airbase soon after the red alert. CO would have reinforced the DSC pickets, positioned his QRTs tactically, redeployed Garud Commandos and aggressively patrolled outer periphery. It would not have let the terrorists enter. Any, if entered, would have been spotted and killed with zero or least casualties. It would have been a great anti terrorist operation. Taking cue, all other CO’s would have gone out of the way in training their units, to the best of their capacity, for counter terrorism and making entire army professional. Hope a critical review will come out with answers. However Schools, Police stations, Railway stations and religious places etc will continue to be vulnerable for long. Hence we need to strengthen the civil defence and make the nation security conscious.
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