DM briefs Cabinet on attack

NEW DELHI/PATHANKOT, Jan 6:
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today briefed the Union Cabinet about the terror strike on Pathankot air base and informed them that evidence that has been collected from the slain terrorists will be shared with agencies concerned.
It is also understood that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed the meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, about the discussion between Pakistan National Security Advisor General Naseer Khan Janjua and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on the terror attack carried out by Pakistani terrorists.
During the nearly one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, Parrikar is learnt to have told his Cabinet colleagues that certain evidence has been collected from the slain terrorists and it would be shared with agencies concerned.
There was no word on whether the issue of proposed Foreign Secretary level talks with Pakistan scheduled to be held in Islamabad on January 15 came up at the meeting.
Combing operations are underway to sanitise the air base that was under siege for four days after terrorists struck the forward installation.
Seven security personnel and six terrorists have been killed in the attack.
Meanwhile, seeking to unravel how the brazen Pathankot attack was mounted, the NIA today quizzed an SP rank officer who was allegedly abducted by the terrorists, recreated the scene of his abduction and visited the border village from where the perpetrators were believed to have sneaked into India.
A team of NIA, Central agency created after 26/11 Mumbai attacks to probe terror-related cases, quizzed Salwinder Singh in Pathankot after he had earlier recorded his statement before the Punjab Police claiming five terrorists had kidnapped him, official sources said.
There were some discrepancies in the statement of Singh which were being looked into, the sources said.
They said Singh was taken to the places he had visited before he, along with his jeweller friend Rajesh Kumar Verma and cook Madan Gopal, was kidnapped.
Singh, who is facing charges of alleged breach of discipline and was transferred recently as Assistant Commandant of 75th battalion of Punjab Armed Police, had claimed that he was returning from a temple at 11 PM when terrorists kidnapped him.
The NIA also recorded the statement of caretaker of the shrine who is believed to have told him that Madan Gopal and Verma had come during day time on December 31 only to return in the evening.
The caretaker was quoted in some television channels as having said that he was not aware about why Gopal, who happens to be his relative also, had come on two occasions that day.
The NIA plans to question Verma and Gopal again as there were some discrepancies in the account of the kidnapping incident that preceded the terror attack at Pathankot air force base given by all the three, sources said.
Singh had told Punjab Police in his statement that after he and his co-passengers were kidnapped, he was blindfolded. He claimed that the terrorists were speaking in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri. However, he got confused when he was made to listen to Kashmiri language and could not confirm if it was spoken by the terrorists.
A separate team of NIA visited Bamiyal village from where the militants are believed to have entered into the Indian territory, they said.
The NIA has sought the call details of Singh, his jeweller friend, Gopal besides Ikagar Singh, the taxi driver who was killed by the terrorists. It has also sought the location of mobile towers through which the signals for those calls were routed.
The NIA has registered three cases in connection with the terror strike at Pathankot IAF base.
The first case pertains to Singh’s abduction and the second of killing of the taxi driver. Both the cases were registered at Narot Jaimal Singh Police Station in Pathankot district.
The third and the main case, registered at Police Station Division No. 2 Pathankot, relates to the terrorist attack on the Air Force Station.
A 20-member team of NIA led by an Inspector General- rank officer has been camping at Pathankot since January 2 to supervise the ongoing investigations.
An officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police has been appointed as the Chief Investigating Officer of the case.
The NIA registered the case under various sections of Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Arms Act against unknown persons, official sources said.
The Pathankot IAF facility, located near the border with Pakistan, is the base for MiG-21 fighter planes and MI-25 attack helicopters of the Air Force.
Meanwhile, the Army today dismissed criticism over deployment of NSG over army in a predominant manner in the counter-terror operation in the Pathankot air base, saying it was a “joint decision” and that the army was fully involved in it.
“There was NSG, Air force, Garud commandos. Application of NSG was a joint decision taken at an appropriate level which included service chiefs,” said Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh, GoC-in-C, army’s Western Command, told a media briefing here.
There has been criticism of the decision to deploy the NSG personnel flown from Delhi on Saturday morning in the air force base in Pathankot when a larger number of army commandos were available in nearby garrison in the border city itself Army’s special forces commandos were  said to be better equipped to deal with the siege of the base.
Lt Gen Singh said said terrorists holed up in buildings in the air force station took “advantage” of it which took time in eliminating them.
He said they also wanted to avoid a hostage situation as a large number of families and foreign trainees were residing inside the base.
“The buildings in the air force base station are such that which are located close to family quarters. The final group of two terrorists  were in a two-storeyed structure where in the first our own troops were there. They (the families) had to be evacuated first and we had to avoid hostage situation because of that it took time.
“I also want to tell you that within these barracks, which are MES constructions. They are covered with steel doors. It is like sitting inside a bunker inside a building and so terrorists took advantage of it. The final body was recovered from inside of this structure,” said Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh at the Western Command Headquarters here.
Throwing light on the use of fore to eliminate the terrorists, Lt Gen Singh said “excessive” firepower was not used because of the presence of families in the quarters and civilians pockets in the area.
“The basic concept is to safeguard the strategic assets. We also follow a principle of calibrated use of force. We have too much fore power which cannot be used in this operation because there were family quarters and civilian pockets outside the air force base.  This is why we used that much fire power which was required in that condition.
“For that we had to take even risks. It took time….We had to localise them (terrorists) to a very small area and finally eliminated them. We were under instructions and it was our concept to avoid unnecessary casualties. We took calculated risk so as not to have unnecessary casualties,” he said.
“There are strategic assets here and there can be hostage situations as there are 11,000 people live here and 3,000 families, and above all, foreign trainees and had there been any hostage situation, it is NSG body which is specially trained to rescue them,” he said.
Lt General further said that it was the success of this operation that Air force was station operational. Had there been any damage to the airport, in that situation how could we have brought NSG here,” he asked.
On why NSG was brought in for this operation, Lt Gen Singh said, “NSG was brought in because firstly strategic assets were over here. Secondly there can be hostage situation. People were living inside the campus which could have taken hostage…NSG are special troops (to handle such situation).”
Asked how militants entered the air force base station and what time they entered, Lt General said, “an inquiry has been ordered by airforce and NIA is investigating the case.”
Asked when it received the first alert about terrorists, he said, “we got information on January one during afternoon.”
“In this case it was a serious alert as we were told that 6-8 (terrorists were there),” he said.
To a question about the source of the alerts,  Lt Gen Singh said, “we got alert from Punjab police also and from central agencies.”
However, he said the alert issued by Punjab police on December 30, was very general which said that 15 militants had entered into the Indian territory.
On reports about Punjab police’s lapse in Pathankot terror attack, he said, ” I will not comment on it. It is a subject matter of inquiry.”
“We had initially report of 4-6 militants and then we made contact with six of them and all of them were eliminated,” he said.
Asked whether there could be any local support to terrorists, Lt Gen said, “some localised support cannot be absolutely ruled out. It will all be looked into. NIA will look into it. All aspects of this case will be looked into it.”
Asked why terrorists struck at the air force base,  Lt Gen said, “it is strategically important. Imagine the kind of publicity you can gain that you have targeted strategic air base. Secondly it is in the vicinity. It is easy to reach here. It is only 25 km from the area.”
On asked about potential hostage situation when terrorists attacked Pathankot air force base station, he said, “it could have developed into a hostage situation. In any case, all along the operation, there was a great possibility of taking a hostage situation because there are air men living in those barracks / residential area.
“They were brought out by army columns, NSG officials. They were brought down from the windows,” he said to a question how two of militants were eliminated.
When asked whether army started any combing operation between the period of getting first alert and attack by terrorists, he said, “combing of those areas was the primary the responsibility of police. We had to ensure security to our strategic assets. Area was checked out and QRT was in place. Air force also carried out searching for terrorists,” he said.
To a question on militant bodies, he said, “There are four bodies of militants. Two have been cooked up. Some parts of bodies were scattered around there which are being forensically examined. The other four bodies which are recovered a call will be taken whether to destroy them or not because they were carrying explosives.”
Asked about the cordoning off of Tibri in Gurdaspur, he said, “there is some information. Police and army were looking into it. Every day there are two or three cases of such information…it is being checked out.” (PTI)

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