Mukesh Ranjan,Tribune News Service,New Delhi, January 18

A special court in Delhi today allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct a lie-detector test on Punjab Police senior officer Salwinder Singh in connection with the Pathankot attack.A team of the NIA took Salwinder to the court of District Judge Amarnath and moved an application seeking consent to conduct a lie-detector test on him. During in-chamber proceedings, the NIA reportedly told the judge that there were “inconsistencies” in the statements made by Salwinder during questioning, so they be allowed to conduct a lie-detector test on him. Salwinder has reportedly given his consent to undergo the test.The court directed the agency to get the test conducted on Salwinder in three days. NIA officials said the test would most probably be conducted tomorrow, subject to the availability of experts.Salwinder has claimed that his car was hijacked by terrorists before they entered the Pathankot airbase on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1. He had claimed that he was kidnapped by terrorists after his visit to a shrine and later let off as they did not know his identity.

Jaish chief not arrested

• Quoting intelligence inputs, government officials said Pakistan-based terror unit Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar had not been arrested or put under house arrest
• No case had been registered against Azhar in connection with the Pathankot attack and there had been no visible action against the leader of the terror group responsible for many attacks in India, they said
• The initial reports of Azhar being detained for the Pathankot incident were false, they said

Ruchika M Khanna,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, January 7

Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh has been given a clean chit by the Punjab government in the report prepared by it for the Union Home Ministry on the terror strike at the Air Force Station in Pathankot.The state government has also denied that there was any delay on its part in responding to the initial sighting of the terrorists.Having drawn flak for its delay in responding to the initial terror alert, it now seems that the Punjab government is covering its tracks.The Union Home Ministry had asked the state government to submit a report on how the terror strike unfolded and the state government’s initial response, after the terrorists were first sighted by the police officer.The role of the SP, who was transferred from Gurdaspur to Jalandhar as Commandant of PAP, following a complaint, only a few days before the terror strike, was questionable.His theory that he was going to pay obeisance at a dera on December 31 night and that too without a gunman has several loopholes.Besides, the fact that he was let off by the terrorists along with his cook, Madan Gopal, while their third co-traveller, jeweler Rajesh Verma, was grievously injured before being thrown out has raised many questions over the SP’s role. However, the state government’s report sent to the Government of India absolves the police officer of any wrongdoing.The initial timeline of the sequence of events, as revealed earlier this week, had said the police official after being let off had called then Senior Superintendent of Police, Gurdaspur, at 3.23 am on January 1, informing him of the incident.The district Police Chief, in spite of an alert sent on December 29, saying 16 militants might have entered the border district, refused to believe Salwinder Singh.This was initially also corroborated by Salwinder Singh himself, who had then claimed that the officer did not take him seriously and asked him to call the police control room. Initially, Salwinder had said nobody responded to his calls in the police control room till 6 am and only a DSP finally came to help him.By this time, injured Verma too was found and it was only then that the police started acting on their complaint of four “Urdu-speaking” armed terrorists having carjacked them.However, the report sent to the Home Ministry now says that there was no delay in the police response to the carjacking by terrorists.It says that the police acted immediately and even the top police brass in Chandigarh had been alerted early in the morning, within minutes of the SP’s call to the Gurdaspur SSP.”By 7 am, ADGP, Law and Order, Hardeep Singh Dhillon had already been dispatched and the police worked on parallel tracts to trace the culprits,” says the report.Interestingly, amid rumours that the police had ordered an internal investigation against four of its officers for delay in responding to the SP’s terror alert, Director General of Police Suresh Arora said no internal inquiry against any police officer had been ordered.”There was no delay on any police officers’ part and immediate search operations to trace the terrorists were launched,” he said.Admitting that the terrorists could have local handlers in the area, Arora, however, said the police was still in the process to identify the local handlers, but the search had so far been inconclusive.

CONTRADICTORY STATMENTS:What report to Home Ministry says

• The state government’s report sent to the Government of India absolves the police officer of any wrongdoing
• The report says there was no delay in the police response to the carjacking by terrorists
• It says the police acted immediately and even the top police brass in Chandigarh was alerted early in the morning, within minutes of the SP’s call to the Gurdaspur SSP
• By 7 am, ADGP, Law and Order, Hardeep Singh Dhillon had already been dispatched and the police worked on parallel tracts to trace the culprits

What SP SalwinderSingh said

• The SP’s theory that he was going to pay obeisance at a dera on Dec 31 and that too without a gunman has several loopholes
• The SP after being let off had called then SSP, Gurdaspur, at 3.23 am on Jan 1, informing him of the incident, but he refused to believe him and asked him to call PCR
• He had said nobody responded to his calls in the PCR till 6 am and a DSP finally came to help him
• By this time, injured Verma was found and it was only then that the police started acting on their complaint of four armed terrorists

Tanda woman accuses Salwinder of bigamy

Seeks rights for ‘their’ son, demands DNA test

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi,Hoshiarpur, January 7

Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh has landed in yet another soup after a woman from Tanda, Urmur, claiming to be his second wife, has opened a front against him seeking her son’s rights.Karanpreet Kaur has claimed that Salwinder Singh married her in April 1994 when he was an ASI in the Amritsar police.”He didn’t allow us to have the marriage photographed from a professional photographer. Instead he got it photographed from a young man accompanying him to whom he introduced as his cousin but we never saw those photographs. He told us that his mother was not well and he would inform her later. After the marriage I repeatedly asked him to take me to his home in Amritsar, but every time he made an excuse and later started quarrelling over the issue,” Karanpreet said.She claimed that she had been residing with him in capacity of his wife at various places of his postings. She had been there with him at Dera Baba Nanak, Amritsar, and other places and he used to stay with her at her parental house till September 1999 when her son was born.She alleged, “After our son was born, he started staying away from me and left us when our son was eight-month old and never looked back.”She added that when he ignored her, she filed a complaint too. “My complaints were heard and statements were recorded but nothing happened after that ever. Once a DIG-level inquiry was also conducted but that too was of no use. I was told to see the DGP, but I could not go as my son was very small,” she added.Her 16-year-old son, Angin Sahilpreet Singh, had also filed a complaint in this regard, which is still pending. Both Sahilpreet and his mother Karanpreet demanded that a DNA test of the SP should be got done to confirm their claim.”Action should be taken against him. Besides, my son should be given all rights,” she said.

Yet another controversy

• Karanpreet Kaur claims that SP Salwinder Singh married her in April 1994 when he was an ASI in the Amritsar police
• She claimed that she stayed with him at various places of his postings and he used to stay with her at her parental house till September 1999 when her son was born
• She alleged he left her when their son was eight months’ old

Tribune News Service,Gurdaspur, January 5

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today visited the families of Havildar Kulwant Singh and Subedar Major Fateh Singh, both of whom lost their lives in the Pathankot anti-terror operation.The minister flew in from Pathankot in a helicopter this evening. He was accompanied by officials of the civil and police administration. He first went to Chak Sharif, the native village of Kulwant Singh and then Jhanda Gujran village where Fateh Singh lived.Interacting with the media, Parrikar said Gurdeep Rana, the elder son of Fateh Singh, who was at present posted with the 15th Dogra regiment at Sikkim, would be transferred to Tibri cantonment area, near the village. He also promised that his daughter would be given a job in the defence services.It’s business as usual, but Pathankot residents still waryPathankot: “Is the operation over?” This was a question on everyone’s mind as life went on as usual in this town on Tuesday. On Monday as firing continued at the Air Force station, children were seen flying kites on the terrace of their houses in a colony near the airbase. They were not bothered about the gunshots and presence of a large number of security personnel and media OB vans. Other than few closed shops along the Air Force station’s main gate, there was business as usual in the town. Raju, a two-wheeler mechanic, chose to open his shop this evening. He said: “We have suffered enough loss of income. How long could we afford to keep our business shut?” He asked: “The media has more information. The operation has been declared to be over, but are there reports of more terrorists in the area?” Buses, trucks and other vehicles plied as usual on the national highway. The only semblance of the terror attack was the number of police barricades on the way. The markets were open well past 9 pm. Even the policemen seemed restless. “We are stuck here for three days,” said a policeman deployed at the entry of Pathankot. At a naka near Garshankar, policemen said: “We heard in the morning that the operation is over. But TV channels were giving conflicting reports. We are still wary of the developments.”Free meal for copsA number of social workers served food round-the-clock to scores of mediapersons. Villagers supplied food to policemen deployed along the roads leading to the town. A large crowd gathered outside the Air Force station main gate. People appeared amused as TV anchors speak through their microphones. Police, media kept at bayThe Punjab Police and the media are kept at bay by the armed forces even as an anti-terror operation has been on inside the IAF airbase for the past three days. Officers of the armed forces have even admitted to be comfortable in handling the operation without the help of the police and the press. Despite the top brass of the state police making the city its base camp in view of the attack, the Army commanders relegated the police force to the sidelines. The IAF commandoes manning the main gate of the base have strict instructions not to allow anybody inside. They have also been told to remain tight-lipped about the operation. Similar is the case with the media. Starved of any concrete information, both electronic and print media are reporting the matter based on speculation, conjecture and assumptions. For the first 48 hours, not even a single piece of information trickled out of the station. It was only on the third day that a press conference was organised. — Jupinderjit Singh & Ravi Dhaliwal

How 6 entered base a mystery

Unanswered questions about why terrorists went undetected

Ruchika M Khanna,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, January 5

How the six terrorists entered the Air Force Station at Pathankot remains a mystery, even as the operation ended today with the killing of all of them.No tell-tale signs of a breach in the 26-km boundary wall of the air base have been found, it is learnt. The wall all along, except near the air strip, is several feet high and cannot be easily scaled. “The height of the boundary wall is lower near the air strip. But the distance between the air strip and non-technical area, where the fidayeen were spotted and where the entire gunbattle took place, is several hundred feet. It seems unlikely that they could have managed to travel that distance without drawing attention on January 1,” a source said.Investigation is being conducted to ascertain whether the wire that is used for fencing even over the small drains that run out of the Air Force Station had been stretched beyond its normal size, so as to allow entry. So far, nothing concrete has been established.The investigation has so far been pointing towards the fact that the terrorists were hiding in the forest area near the Air Force Station before they entered, since mobile phone signals had been detected from the area.Though it was cordoned off, the security forces were waiting for the break of dawn to enter this area and engage the terrorists. How this cordon was breached is another question that seeks answers.Official sources maintain that they were in a state of preparedness and had specific inputs of a strike at the air base. They maintain that the Air Force station had been asked to increase patrolling and activate its Quick Reaction Teams by around 4 pm. Even the barracks of the Defence Services Corps (DSC) had been vacated at night. However, the patrolling does not seem to have achieved its purpose.Officials are now banking on the NIA probe to fill in these gaps in the sequence of events.

SP: I averted major strike

Ravi Dhaliwal,Tribune News Service,Gurdaspur, January 5

Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh on Tuesday claimed that had it not been for his revelations about terrorists, there would have been a major strike in the area. He, however, refused to comment as to why the police did not take him seriously. The officer was abducted along with his friend Rajesh Verma, a Gurdaspur-based jeweller, and his cook Madan Gopal. Salwinder said his captors called up some people from his mobile phone and talked to them for a few minutes in Urdu before dumping him. He said he had spoken to several senior officers, including DGP Suresh Arora, after he was freed. Salwinder replied in the affirmative when asked whether intelligence agencies had questioned him. “The IB and state police officers have been questioning me regularly. I have been repeatedly asked to recount the sequence of events. I was sure that the men were terrorists after I saw their bags containing arms and ammunition,” he said. “After I was freed, I rang up the control room and my seniors and informed them about my abduction. My information has prevented a major terror attack,” he claimed.

Heightened checking now on Dinanagar-Kathua road, but laxity did prove very costly

Jupinderjit Singh & Vijay Mohan,Tribune News Service,Kohlian, January 5

The Dinanagar-Kathua road, which is a route to riches for many who transport sand and gravel from the Ravi to other parts of the state, has seen much action in the past few days.Teams of state police, Intelligence Bureau, BSF, Army, NSG and NIA are often seen tracing the route followed by terrorists on this stretch from where one section leads to about 8 km away to Bamial village on the Indo-Pak border and another to Kathua via Narot Jaimal Singh (about 6 km).The Tribune team, in a bid to trace the series of events which led to the abduction of SP Salwinder Singh and his associates, travelled on the route. Amid zero visibility on the potholed road and scary surroundings of the 2,200-acre Raipur-Kathlore forest spread across Punjab and Jammu areas, our car was stopped by an ASI and his team of six.They entered our names, phone numbers and vehicle registration number in a register. They allowed us to proceed only after authenticating our identity.Only four days ago, a police team on this and at least three other such barriers let a Mahindra XUV pass without checking or making an entry in the register, thinking the vehicle belonged to a senior police official.They even saluted the XUV occupants with no clue that the persons inside were terrorists and the SP was in their captivity.At Kathlor bridge barrier, the same thing happened. The XUV zoomed past. “We were alerted by our colleagues on other nakas that SP Salwinder Singh was travelling on an SUV probably to check barriers at night,” said a head constable at the bridge naka, admitting he was so wrong.The SP and his two companions were reportedly returning from Khwaja Peer shrine in Taloor on December 31 when they were abducted by the ultras.Taxi driver Ikaagar Singh too was confronted by terrorists while he was on his way to Kohlian. Ikaagar was found dead near banks of the Ravi at Kohlian village.At a third barrier in the middle of nowhere bright torch lights suddenly erupted with three policemen signalling us to stop. Once again they took time to verify our antecedents. They seemed over-suspicious. As one of the team members entered details in a register, more policemen appeared and insisted on checking the car’s boot again. “Our strategy is that only three persons remain visible to an approaching vehicle while another three-four remain out of sight to provide cover in case of any exigency,” a policeman said.On learning about our destination, which was still about 8 km away from that point, the policemen advised us against going further, saying that the area was not only unsafe but finding the way would be difficult at midnight with no sign boards or anyone to ask for directions.Despite having a local guide with us, we took a couple of wrong turns and had to retrace our steps. The terrorists, on the other hand, managed to find their way to the Air Force station in the dark.Rs 25 lakh, job for martyrs’ kinGurdaspur: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday announced a financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh and a government job each for the next of kin of Subedar Major Fateh Singh and Havildar Kulwant Singh, who were killed in the Pathankot attack. Interacting with the media during his Sangat Darshan in Qadian, the CM said it was a modest effort by the state to pay tributes to the brave hearts who had made the supreme sacrifice for the country. — TNSPak must act against rogue elements: CaptAmritsar: State Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh said while the talks between India and Pakistan should continue, Pakistan must make it a point to initiate action against the rogue elements who have owned up the responsibility for attack on the Pathankot airbase. The Amritsar MP also said instead of putting the NSG in charge of the operations in Pathankot, it should have been handled by the Army. — TNSSecurity up at Amritsar jail Amritsar: The Amritsar Central Jail authorities have beefed up security on the premises as a number of hardcore convicts are lodged there. There are 74 foreign inmates. Of these, 13 are undertrials, 21 convicts and 40 interns. Since the jail is located near the Indo-Pak border, the authorities have shot off letters to the Police Commissioner, PAP and the Punjab Home Guards to enhance the security of the jail. — TNS

Ajay Banerjee,Tribune News Service,New Delhi, December 29

The public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been preferred over the private sector to partner Russian helicopter giant Kamov in producing military helicopters in India. This will be another major defence project with Russian help in India after the MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets, T-90 tanks and Brahmos missiles.HAL-Kamov will produce 200 copters at a cost of nearly Rs 6,500 crore or Rs 32 crore per copter. It will be an inter-governmental deal like the ones earlier for the Russian Sukhoi-30-MKI fighter jets in India or the T-90 tanks. The HAL is owned by the Ministry of Defence and has previous experience at making copters.Earlier, there was talk of a private sector company walking away with the Russian co-production offer. Sources said HAL pipped other private sector aspirants because of its ongoing partnership with French engine-maker Turbomeca for its indigenously developed copter, the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), called the Dhruv. The Kamov 226-T is also fitted with Turbomeca engines, but a different variant. Past experience also weighed in its favour.HAL in the past has licensed-produced the French origin Cheetah/Chetak Light Utility Helicopter (LUH).The twin-engined Kamov 226-T will replace the single-engine Cheetah/Chetak, usually deployed for surveillance, dropping small loads and for rescue, including of troops posted at forbidding heights such as the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region.The twin-rotor Kamov 226-T light will also be used for armed reconnaissance, to direct artillery fire on enemy positions and fly in quick reaction teams for special missions. It has a flight ceiling of 18,700 feet — covering almost the entire Siachen Glacier and has a superior carrying capacity.The three services and the Coast Guard currently have 430 Cheetah/Chetaks helicopters. They are based on the 1950s’ designed Alouette Aérospatiale 315B Lama of France and lack modern avionics like instrument landing and omni-directional and ranging systems.The forces need some 800 LUHs over the next decade. The gap will be filled by Kamov 226-T and HAL’sDhruv. The Kamov-HAL joint venture will have an annual production capacity of 30-40 helicopters.Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had in February announced a two-pronged plan to ramp up chopper production in India. Speaking at the Aero-India show, he said the first part was to ramp up capacity at HAL and, the second, to invite foreign participation to collaborate with Indian companies.The first part of expansion of HAL will kick off this Sunday — January 3 —when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone for HAL’s new helicopter manufacturing facility at Tumkuru, 100 kms from Bengaluru. HAL currently produces just 20 ALH copters every year against the requirement of 100-120 annually. The second part of plan will take off after Kamov-HAL starts producing the LUH.