Impose President’s rule in state, Bajwa urges Centre

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 5

Terming the Pathankot air base attack as a failure on the part of the state government, former PCC president Partap Singh Bajwa advocated to impose President’s rule in the state.

He was in the city to attend the bhog ceremony of Jagat Mitter Soni, father of senior party leader and MLA Om Prakash Soni here today.

While addressing the media, Bajwa said the law and order situation was dismal in the state.

“Being located closer to the Indo-Pak border, Punjab becomes the most sensitive location. Except for Amritsar, all border belt districts are being monitored by PPS officers, whereas it demands only IPS officers to lead police teams. State intelligence agencies need to be revamped and political intervention should be discouraged in the working of the Police Department,” he said.

Bajwa also pointed out that lack of coordination between the Centre and the state government came to the fore during the counter-terrorism operation at the Pathankot air base.

“The Centre did not have the authentic information about the number of terrorists holed up in the air base and how many of them were neutralised. Questions are also being raised that when we have trained Army commanders whose decision was it to handover the operation to the NSG,” he said.

“I am also inclined to see what action do the Modi government take in retaliation. It is a cause of concern that two years have elapsed since the BJP government has taken over the country’s reigns and two terrorist attacks have been executed in Punjab, earlier in Dinanagar (Gurdaspur) and now, in Pathankot. On the other hand, the Modi government was initiating dialogue with Pakistan to bridge the gap in relationship between the two nations,” he said.

Bajwa also questioned the Central Government to clarify whether the SAD-led state government was made answerable for the security lapses as two attacks had been executed in the state.