Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 30

Over three years after Pakistan-sponsored terrorists attacked the Air Force station at Pathankot, a couple of senior IAF officers might face a probe and could be served a show-cause notice asking them to explain how the attack happened despite an alert about specific threat.

Sources confirmed the IAF had initiated legal action against Air Commodore JS Dhamoon. The Ministry of Defence is expected to ratify the same before the notice is served. The IAF had, following an internal enquiry, prepared the notice for the officer and sent it to the MoD.

Sources said the IAF was also considering action against another senior officer. The government was livid when the attack happened on the intervening night of January 1-2, 2016. A day before the attack, there was a clear alert about a terror attack in Pathankot.

The terrorists had even abducted a Punjab Police official and his vehicle. The official had alerted his hierarchy and the alert was shared. The vehicle was found abandoned near the air base, but it failed to raise sufficient alarm within the IAF. The action against the officers could be taken for not responding appropriately to the specific alert, sources said.

Heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants had sneaked into the air base through a gap in the fencing. Six soldiers had died during the attack. The counter-terror operations lasted three days and it pushed India and Pakistan to the brink of another conflict. Spread across 24 sq km, the Pathankot base houses attack helicopters, long-range radars and air defence missiles. Air Commodore Dhamoon resigned last year and was scheduled to leave the force by November (2018), but the government did not accept his resignation and instead asked the IAF to ascertain if action could be taken against him.

Section 17 of the IAF Act allows the Air Force Chief to sack someone if he is “satisfied” with the probe report. The government, on the recommendation of the IAF Chief, “may remove or compulsorily retire the officer from service,” the Act says. The IAF has already punished two junior officers for laxity during the Pathankot attack. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, while speaking to top commanders of the three forces, referred to the Pathankot attack and expressed his displeasure over how terrorists breached security despite the alert.