Anti-terrorist operation by our security forces in Pathankot air base has ended. Evidence gathered has been passed on to the Government of Pakistan to bring the culprit to book. What Islamabad Government will do or not do is a different matter. Back home, authorities are focusing on the attack itself. A massive and well planned attack had been planned to blow up a sensitive and strategic airport with such elaborate defence structure. We need to know the fullest possible detail about it. Unfortunately, the efforts of the forces that engaged the terrorists for about three days did not succeed in capturing even one of the six terrorists alive despite much effort to that end.
In the aftermath of the operation, many questions are raised that need to be answered. The story of SP Salwinder Singh of Gurdaspur being kidnapped along with two men and then abandoned alive somewhere on the roadside, the murdering of a taxi driver, the precise day and time when the terrorists sneaked into the air base and the route which they had taken for infiltrating into Indian side and from where, these are still the unanswered questions. However, the most crucial question on which authorities in general and the BSF in particular are concentrating is the breach of the international border meaning the route which the terrorists took to enter into our side of the international border. Home Ministry claims that IB has been completely sealed and ordinarily there is no possibility of any terrorist breaking it. How then did the six terrorists manage not only to sneak into our side of the border but also bring along with them the huge baggage of arms and ammunition? Looking in retrospect, we find that the extraordinary crucial and strategic assets of the forward air base were the target. They had planned to blow up the aircrafts and choppers that had been parking at the base and there were about 300 families of the IAF personnel stationed there. In the light of the plan that the terrorists were pursuing, one can say that our defence forces, army, IAF, NSG, police and other paramilitary force have done a great job. If the terrorists had succeeded in their design, the repercussions would have been unimaginably serious and horrendous. Thanks to the valour and courage of the soldiers, including seven of them who laid down their lives while defending the assets at the air base and the lives of defence personnel and their families.
Obviously, aspersions will be cast on the Border Security Force manning the international border with Pakistan in the sector from where infiltration has been made. Feeling the weight of responsibilities, the Home Secretary and BSF Director General held a meeting to discuss the situation and the responsibility of the BSF to explain how infiltration took place. They have recommended constituting a five member team which will travel to select areas along the Indo-Pak International Border (IB) in Punjab and Jammu and examine the route which the terrorists had taken for infiltration. The Director General of BSF made a personal tour of the area including the border village of Bamiyal from where the terrorist are suspected to have come into our side of the border.
Forming a committee has become unavoidable because the investigation made by the forces so far does not reveal any breach. There are no symptoms to show that the fencing has been tampered with or that there has been a hidden tunnel from which source the terrorists sneaked into our side of the border. The BSF maintains strict vigil on the border and it is equipped with the paraphernalia that helps in keeping strict watch on the movement of men and material along the border. How come the BSF could not detect the ingress? The committee is likely to examine the CCTYs also to see if there is any record available with the camera machines. It has to be noted that the terrorists had made good tactical use of the dense forest that surrounds the air base at Pathankot. Should that forest have been left untouched and should the elephant grass been left as it was, is also a question that needs to be answered. We are told that the force commanders have put forth the evidences that nothing has gone unnoticed from their eyes in the last few days. It is exasperating. How can one believe it? The manner in which the terrorist conducted themselves in the air base complex, explains that they had the full picture of the area with them. Obviously, they made reconnaissance in advance. Many more questions may come up in due course of time. Recognizing that BSF has been performing excellent job in militancy-prone areas in Northern India, we will still think that BSF needs to overhaul its border guarding and surveillance equipments so that they can act as an effective force multiplier along with ground troops.
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