Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 8: Leaving no stone unturned to provide mega security cover to the Air Force Stations across the State of Jammu and Kashmir post-Pathankot attack of January 2, smart fencing will soon guard the air bases in the State to prevent terror attacks.
Six Pakistani terrorists had stormed the 18 Wing fighter base in Pathankot on January 2 in which seven soldiers were also killed in the strike that exposed security gaps, forcing the Air Force to conduct a safety audit.
Official sources said the Ministry of Defence is very much concerned about the safety measures around the Air Force Stations across the State, after militant attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on January 2 last month.
“In view of that, the Air Force Stations based across this sensitive region will soon be surrounded by smart fences, official sources said while terming the Pathankot attack as a “learning experience’’ for them, which has resulted into enhanced security all over the air bases and proposal to guard them with smart fence so that the terrorists were unable to breach it.
Sources said that Bharat Electronics Limited has been assigned the task and will provide the smart fences in Jammu and Kashmir, adding, the smart fences would be used across all the air bases in the State.
The sources said that no doubt there might be some gaps or security lapse, which led to Pathankot attack. The Government will be spending a whopping amount of about over Rs 8,000 crore to provide security to the airbases including the smart fencing.
Being situated few kilometers away from the International Border, the Jammu based Air Force Station is very sensitive and can be the target of anti-national elements.
“Therefore, the airbase required immediate smart fencing to prevent any untoward like incident,’’ sources asserted.
Jammu based Air Force Station, which is situated on outskirts, is densely surrounded by civilian population, which can pose a major threat to it.
Jammu, Udhampur, Awanti-pora and Leh based Air Force Stations in J&K fall under Western Command. They, however, said that the violation of guidelines (unwanted construction around Air Force Stations) has been taken up with the Government after the Pathankot attack to ensure that rules, including no construction within 100 meters of any airbase and within 900 meters of its ammunition depots, were implemented.
The IAF has also planned to induct at least 10 more units of Garud commandos with 70 to 80 men each to secure its bases.
The IAF is in the process of finalizing a Rs 8,000-crore comprehensive security proposal for its 54 main flying bases in the country, which include a smart perimeter intrusion system, CCTVs, motion detectors, quadro drones and the cost will come to about Rs 100 to 150 crore per base, sources added.
According to sources, the Ministry of Defence was very serious on security of vital installations of defence all over the country especially in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, which were high on targets of the militants. Such installations had earlier also been targeted by the militants along Jammu-Pathankot National Highway.
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