AIRBASE ATTACK 6th terrorist killed by security forces as guns fall silent after 82-hour operation ASSURANCE Nawaz Sharif says his govt is working on leads provided by India; will investigate the matter VITAL LEADS Parrikar says NIA, which is probing atta
Whenever a serious effort to bring peace between (the) two countries is underway, terrorists try to derail the process.
NAWAZ SHARIF, Pak PM
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought “prompt and decisive action” from his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif when the latter called him to discuss the attack on the air force base in Pathankot that security agencies have blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
Taking a strong stand, Modi emphasised the need for Pakistan to take “firm and immediate action” against organisations and individuals responsible for the Pathankot attack on the basis of “specific and actionable information” provided by India, the external affairs ministry said in a statement. The brazen attack on the airbase left seven security personnel dead. Six attackers were also killed.
Sharif, currently on a visit to Sri Lanka, spoke to Modi hours after a conversation between India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua.
It is learnt that Doval asked Janjua to extend the Pakistan Army’s Zarbe Azab anti-terrorist operation — focussed on northwest Pakistan — to Bahawalpur in Punjab province, the stronghold of the JeM, and said the foreign secretary-level talks could happen after visible action against JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar. During his conversation, Janjua condemned the attack and assured Doval of immediate action.
A statement by the Pakistani PM’s office quoted Sharif as saying: “Our government was working on the leads and information provided by the Indian government.” Pakistan “would investigate this matter,” it added.
Reports have suggested that India has linked a planned meeting of the foreign secretaries on January 15 to action being taken against the JeM.
According to the Pakistani statement, Sharif pointed out to Modi that “whenever a serious effort to bring peace between (the) two countries was underway, terrorists try to derail the process”. Sharif also “appreciated the maturity” shown by the Indian government in its statements. “Both the PMs agreed that a cordial and cooperative relationship between the two countries would be the most appropriate response to the nefarious designs of the terrorists,” the statement said.
Sources said New Delhi had shared with Islamabad intercepts of calls made to Pakistan-based handlers by the terrorists who attacked the airbase. Details of the Pakistani numbers which the attackers called were also shared with Pakistani authorities.
The US has said it expects Pakistan to bring to justice the elements responsible for the Pathankot attack.
Referring to the discussions between the prime ministers and the NSAs, an Indian official said: “These conversations amply reflect India’s concerns over the Pakistanbased group staging an attack in Pathankot. There are enough leads for them. They need to match their words with action.”
Parrikar admits there were ‘gaps’
It was a difficult operation and was executed without compromising any strategic asset. Security forces have done an excellent job.
MANOHAR PARRIKAR, defence minister
PATHANKOT: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday some “gaps” in security may have led to the deadly terrorist attack at the Pathankot air force station and though six gunmen have been killed, efforts to secure the base were still on.
RAVI KUMAR/HTDefence minister Manohar Parrikar and army chief Gen Dalbir Singh (right) during a press conference at the Pathankot airbase on Tuesday.While visiting the sprawling military compound in Punjab, the minister announced that the NIA had got major leads in the case about how the attackers entered the base while he congratulated the defence forces for restricting the “highly motivated” terrorists to a small area.
“I can see certain gaps, which will be known only after investigation,” he said. “But I don’t think that we have made any compromise with security.”
Security sources say the attack may have been carried out by Pakistan-based Jaishe-Mohammed, though the United Jihad Council, a conglomerate of several terror groups, claimed Kashmiri militants were responsible.
Parrikar said the attackers were carrying AK-47 assault rifles with makeshift rocket launchers attached, mortar rounds that could be fired from the launchers, pistols, and 50-60 kilograms of ammunition.
Though the minister remained tightlipped on questions about any Pakistani involvement, Punjab police has already registered a case against the Pakistan- based jihadist group Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The terror strike came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in Islamabad and it has cast a shadow over planned talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries on January 15.
A combing operation is still on at the airbase for safety purposes, Parrikar said, and this is expected to end by Wednesday. The National Security Guard (NSG) would take the final call on calling off the operation.
“There are live bombs and the high-quality explosives that need to be detonated. One of the terrorists still has body vest with grenades stuck,” the minister said.
“So, I have told them to take no risk because we have already lost one person to a booby trap. The operation was very difficult and it has been done without compromising with any strategic asset or other building. Only one building where two terrorists were holed up has been damaged.”
The minister maintained that the air force base was a “complicated area” spread over nearly 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) and housing 3,000 families. He was accompanied by army chief General Dalbir Singh, IAF’s Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha and NIA chief Sharad Kumar.
MESSAGE IN BLOOD LINKS AF TO PATHANKOT
NEW DELHI: Even as security forces were wrapping up the operation to clear the Pathankot airbase, it emerged Tuesday that the attack blamed on Pakistan-based Jaishe-Mohammad was linked to the assault on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The three terrorists who stormed a house from which they targeted the consulate left two messages in blood on the walls of a strong room. Both were in broken Urdu and one described the attack as “revenge for Afzal Guru”, hanged for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack.
The terrorists in Pathankot had told Rajesh Verma, a Gurdaspur resident they’d taken hostage, they were going to attack the airbase to avenge Afzal Guru’s hanging. The messages in Mazar-i-Sharif read “Afzal Guru ka inteqaam (revenge for Afzal Guru)” and “Ek shaheed, hazar fidayeen (one martyr, thousand fidayeen).”
The Pajhwok Afghan News service posted photos of the messages that were scribbled in blood on walls that appeared to have been hit by bullets and shrapnel.
Security sources said the JeM’s affinity to Afzal Guru was understandable as he was convicted for the Parliament attack that was blamed on the group based at Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The attackers in Mazari-Sharif were initially thwarted by ITBP personnel guarding the Indian consulate. Afghan special forces then launched an assault and killed the attackers late on Monday, ending a 24-hour siege.
Eight Afghan security personnel were injured in the operation and all staff of the Indian mission escaped unharmed.
The attack began late Sunday after the terrorists tried to break into the consulate, taking advantage of the fact that many people were watching a football match between Afghanistan and India.
Afghan authorities have launched a probe to identify the attackers and provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor blamed “enemies of peace and stability” for the attack.
Heavily armed terrorists were ready for long haul
Had carried high-quality explosives to target strategic assets
PATHANKOT: Though the authorities have yet to reveal the identity of the six terrorists killed in the Pathankot airbase attack, what’s clear is this — they were highly trained and wanted a long fight and heavy damage.
SAMEER SEHGAL/HTSecurity personnel on guard outside the Pathankot airbase.
OFFICIALS SAY THE TERRORISTS WERE HIGHLY TRAINED FOR CARRYING SUCH A HUGE QUANTITY OF EXPLOSIVE
Besides AK-47 rifles and around 40 to 50kg of bullets, the terrorists carried a large number of grenades, explo-sive vests, under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL) and mortars. The security forces have already recovered three to four dozen assault rifles magazines.
The terrorists who had sneaked into the airbase had wanted to target strategic assets, including choppers and other aircraft, and for that purpose alone carried high-quality explosives, something which even defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who was in Pathankot on Tuesday, admitted. It is the sheer range of the arms and ammunition, and the quantity, that the terrorists were able to hold on for so long.
Security officials say the terrorists, believed to be in their 20s, were highly trained as only then could they have carried so much of explosive material.
Four terrorists were killed hours after the gunfight erupted in the wee hours on Saturday. The fifth and the sixth terrorist were killed on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
Punjab Police under fire for not ‘believing’ Gurdaspur SP
TOP POLICE OFFICERS FROM THE STATE ADMIT THEY TOOK THE INFORMATION GIVEN BY SP OVER THE PHONE ABOUT HIS KIDNAPPING WITH A PINCH OF SALT. INVESTIGATORS ARE TRYING TO DETERMINE WHY THE TERRORISTS, WHO KILLED THE DRIVER OF ANOTHER CAR THEY HIJACKED, RELEASED THE SP I did my duty by informing the seniors about the sequence of events. Whether they believed me or not, only they can answer.
SALWINDER SINGH, Gurdaspur SP
1 GURDASPUR: As the guns fell silent at the Pathankot airbase on Tuesday with security personnel killing six heavily armed terrorists and investigators trying to retrace the attackers’ steps, the spotlight once again fell on the curious case of a police officer allegedly abducted and later released by the militants.
Though superintendent of police Salwinder Singh says the information he provided helped minimise loss of life, he has been questioned by authorities and the NIA too is examining him and his cook Madan Gopal.
Punjab police denied having caused any delay in sharing inputs provided by Singh but they are increasingly coming under fire for alleged lapses in collating the information in the first few hours after receiving it.
Sources say investigators are trying to determine why the terrorists, who killed the driver of another car they hijacked, released the SP and those with him.
While top police officers from the state admit they took the information given by Singh over the phone about his kidnapping with a pinch of salt, they added that once the matter was verified, no efforts were spared in alerting all the agencies that needed to be in the loop.
“Salwinder has a certain reputation and we were wary of him,” said a top cop. “Moreover, he was under transfer and was facing a departmental inquiry for a serious complaint. It did cross our mind that he might just be cooking up information.”
Singh told HT he stopped his car on Friday when four to five men in military-style clothing signalled him to halt and he had no reason to believe or could tell in the darkness they were terrorists in disguise moving in an area where army movements are routine. “I did not have any weapon. Nor were my guards with me,” he said. “Had they been with me or had I been carrying my gun, I would have killed the terrorists.”
The gunmen allegedly used the vehicle to reach the airbase which they attacked over the weekend, with six militants and seven Indian soldiers killed in a days-long operation.
Singh said the terrorists abducted him along with his friend Rajesh Verma, who’s a Gurdaspur-based jeweller, as well as his cook Madan Gopal at Kohlian village in Pathankot district.
The officer said the kidnappers left him at Gulpur Simbli village after about 45 minutes of travel while they later slit the jeweller’s throat before dumping him and the cook near another village. Verma is receiving care at a hospital. Singh said the gunmen learnt his identity only when a constable called up on his cellphone which they had snatched.
Police sources said the district’s top officers reached the police station where Singh was waiting and the exercise of corroborating what he was saying began almost immediately.
“Based on his information, a massive manhunt was launched for his car. Police stations were informed and even nakas laid for checking of moving vehicles,” added an officer.
While the search for the vehicle began, Singh was questioned about the details of his statement. What was the SP, who had been transferred and was to take up his duties in Jalandhar, doing in Gurdaspur and that too in the middle of the night on a road so close to the Pakistan border?
Also, why was the SP moving without any weapon and gunmen despite the fact that the area had seen a terrorist attack barely five months ago? In his defence, Singh told HT he was without his gunmen and his own weapon as he was going to a shrine on New Year’s Eve and he routinely visits such religious places.
Controversy swirled when intelligence officials in Punjab police were informed that the SP’s mobile phone was with the terrorists. “By 7am, we had information that his phone had indeed been used to make calls to Pakistan,” added a senior officer. “A little later the vehicle was also located outside the air force station. All agencies which needed to know this information were given the details.” Though Punjab police has assessed that the SP’s account is true, he has been questioned by central agencies and is likely to be examined again. (with inputs from Kamaljit
Kamal, Gurdaspur)
