NEWDELHI: The commander of the Pathankot airbase when it was attacked by militants in 2016, Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, is likely to be issued a show-cause notice asking him to explain why he shouldn’t face action for the strike that happened on his watch, and his plea for an early retirement has been turned down, two senior officials from the defence ministry said on condition of anonymity.
“The show cause notice prepared by the Indian Air Force is pending approval of the Ministry of Defence,” a third senior defence ministry official said, asking not to be named.
Heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants sneaked into the airbase on the
intervening night of January 1 and 2, 2016, killing six soldiers and an officer, and pushing India and Pakistan to the brink of an armed conflict.
The Pathankot airbase is a frontline fighter base of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The militants managed to breach the security despite a clear warning about a possible attack sounded at least 12 hours before the terror operation. Counter-terror operations
lasted for nearly three days. Though the NSG and a detachment of the Indian Army were moved soon after the alert was issued, a court of inquiry into the incident revealed several lapses. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was given a special briefing on the findings of the court of inquiry by IAF recently, according to one of the officials cited above