Pathankot attack: Standing Committee pulls up Centre for poor security

NEW DELHI: Something is very wrong with the country''s counter-terrorism security, Parliamentary Standing Committee for Home Affairs said on Tuesday as it criticised the central government for the terrorist strike at Indian Air Force’s base in Pathankot in January.

This photo taken on January 2, 2016, shows security personnel stand guard next to a barricade outside the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab. — Reuters file photo

New Delhi, May 3

Something is very wrong with the country's counter-terrorism security, Parliamentary Standing Committee for Home Affairs said on Tuesday as it criticised the central government for the terrorist strike at Indian Air Force’s base in Pathankot in January.

“The committee is unable to understand how terrorists managed to reach the Pathankot airbase in spite of terror alerts being sounded well in advance. The security agencies were ill-prepared to anticipate the threats in time and counter them swiftly,” Pradip Bhattacharya, the Chairman of the Standing Committee said.

“We had a long interaction with officers at the Pathankot airbase. They said they had no information that their airbase would be attacked. He got information early in the morning, that too not from Punjab, but from the Delhi Air Force. How did it happen? Who gave this information to Delhi Air Force? These are remarkable things to find,” he said.

The base had inadequate security and poorly guarded perimeters, he said.

“We urge upon the Government of India to take this report seriously and take appropriate steps. Even today, there are very unsafe conditions at the Pathankot airbase,” he said.

Some gunmen attacked the airbase in a pre-dawn strike on January 2. Five gunmen of the Jaish-e-Mohammed — a militant organisation based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir — and three security personnel were killed in the standoff that followed.

A five-member Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising Additional Inspector General of Police (IGP), a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), two Lt Colonels and one inspector, from Pakistan had visited India in March to collect, review and document physical evidences and to interview key witnesses and victims through the NIA in connection with the Pathankot attack.

On April 28, the Centre had told the Rajya Sabha that Pakistan had been clearly told that it should allow Indian investigators to visit the country for probe. — Agencies