Abducted SP’s inputs were shared with Centre: DGP on Pathankot attack
Pathankot, January 5
The Punjab DGP today dismissed reports that they had not acted on the inputs given by the abducted Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh, who had reportedly claimed that had the authorities acted on his information the Pathankot terror attack could have been averted.
"It was immediately shared," Punjab's Director General of Police Suresh Arora told a news conference here when asked about the SP's information whether it was shared with the Centre.
Asked if there was any failure on part of Punjab police despite an alert warning possibility of a terror attack, he said, "It has never happened that if the alert is there that it has not been shared. We know it was shared, investigations will prove all this."
The SP, however, today maintained that he had immediately informed his seniors about the incident of his kidnap and release. After that the DGP, ADGP and other senior officers reached Pathankot, he said, adding "police swung into action and laid nakas (check posts) at various points."
The DGP said NIA and Punjab police will jointly probe the Pathankot terror attack.
"The NIA has taken over the investigation into the terror attack incident. NIA and Punjab police will investigate the case jointly," he said.
Arora said three cases have been registered. "One case pertains to encounter in air force base station, another was registered on the statement of the SP and the third one pertains to murder of Ikagar Singh, driver of Innova vehicle," he said.
When asked that the FIR mentions the name of Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit, DGP said a slip was recovered from the SP's vehicle which carried the name of the outfit and which is being verified.
To another question, he said whenever such incidents occur, a detailed report from police department goes to state government and the Centre.
When asked why the SP's vehicle was not stopped at the police nakas, DGP said, "that is a matter of investigation".
When pressed further as to how the terrorists penetrated into the airbase and if it was a major failure on part of police, Suresh Arora said "investigations will prove all this."
"It depends on what you are looking at. What we have been able to save, you will not look (securing critical assets of airbase). Have you ever said this thing that the security forces, through the timely alert, were able to save the critical assets," he said.
Asked if there were any input suggesting possibility of more terrorists lurking around, DGP said, "we do not have such any information."
When asked that terrorists had any support of local smugglers or drug addicts since they had managed to enter equipped with arms, ammunition and other articles, DGP said, "all these are matters of investigation".
He did not agree that there had been any delay in mobilising the forces after the SP alerted them.
DGP also said NSG reaching before the incident was a proof that various agencies had swung into action and were coordinating immediately.
He said that ADGP (Law and order), Punjab Police has been camping here since January 1.
"I came on January 2 and since then we have been part of this operation. During operation, we were inside the airbase station only," he said.
Touching upon the facts of the case, he said, “Our officers reached the spot immediately after listening to SP's account. We immediately started searching who took his vehicle away.
"ADGP (Law and order) was asked to rush to Pathankot within hours when the SP informed about the incident. Then IG and DIG (Border Range) were asked to mobilise forces and rush to Pathankot.
Another company was mobilised from Punjab Armed Police. While the operation was going on, we went for combing operation and search for vehicle," he said.
Continuing further, he said, "By piecing different information, our intelligence in Chandigarh also started looking into it. At the same time, this information was shared with other concerned agencies also in Pathankot at appropriate time. It was thought that further resources would be required from Delhi and the information was shared."
"Without getting into technical details, I will say that this is perhaps only one case where NSG was deployed before the action was started (terror attack took place)," he said.
Asked about what steps will be taken to prevent such incidents from re-occurring, he replied, "We need to strengthen resources of district police here. As announced by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, we will be shifting one battalion to Pathankot. We have taken a decision to post one SP (Operations) to coordinate different operations in this area."
"We have also decided to post AIG-Counter Intelligence here. It has also been decided to install CCTV network to strengthen security," he said. — PTI
