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.