Announcing that the six terrorists, who attacked the Indian Air Force base here have been neutralised, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday put up a spirited defence of the Centre’s handling of the terror attack.

The Minister said the forces had to ensure the safety of nearly 3000 civilians who stay inside the base, and secure all the strategic assets against the high quality explosives the attackers were carrying, “which they successfully did,” he added

Responding to questions on the under-utilising of the Army in the garrison town and the rationale for roping in the NSG, Mr. Parrikar said: “Army cannot be expected to perform civil duties, guard roads. Also since there were civilians in the base, we needed the expertise of NSG.”

Only one operational loss

Further, Mr. Parrikar argued that only one of the security personnel who died in Pathankot was an operational loss.

Of the seven security personnel who lost their lives battling terrorists, he said only the death of the IAF Garud commando was an operational loss — four others died even before the counter-terror operations began, while the sixth, the Lt Colonel from NSG, fell to a booby trap during combing.

Maintains restraint on role of Pakistan

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was restrained in his criticism of Pakistan, in line with the tone adopted by the Modi government.

Addressing the media here, the Minister said: “They [the terrorists] managed to enter the main premises with AK-47 rifles, underbarrel grenade launchers, over 50 kg of bullets, magazines, mortar and Swiss knife. The National Investigation Agency has leads that some of the weapons used by the terrorists were of Pakistani-make.”

According to Mr. Parrikar, the flushing out part of the operation was over in 36 hours but the combing operation continued and is likely to stretch for a few day.

Even as he confirmed that all six terrorists have been eliminated, Mr. Parrikar said that two of them had taken shelter in a building which had to be blown up. “These bodies were recovered in pieces and the NIA will conduct a DNA test on the remains for identification,” said Mr. Parrikar.

The Minister insisted there was adequate security in place for the airbase, even while admitting to some gaps. He also, refused to answer questions about the failure of Punjab Police or BSF to prevent the attacks.

He congratulated all the forces for completing a challenging operation in a difficult area spread across 1900 acres and with plenty of blind spots for terrorists to hide.

Mr. Parrikar made a special mention of the Defence Security Corps constable Jagdish Singh, saying the country was proud of the man who killed a terrorist after snatching his rifle.

Ultras hid among shrubs in airbase since January 1

The six terrorists who were eliminated during the Pathankot operation, which lasted around 80 hours, are said to have taken refuge among the shrubs in the air force base since the early hours of January 1, an analysis of the cell phone tower records of the snatched mobile phones reveal, a top government official told The Hindu.

Investigators have pieced together the circumstances leading to the attack and found at least three mobile phones, which the terrorists snatched from the former Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police, Salwinder Singh, and his friend Rajesh Verma remained active at the airbase from early morning till the afternoon of January 1.

Only one phone used
While the terrorists used only one phone, that of Mr. Verma, to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan, the other two belonging to Mr. Singh were not used. The location of all the three phones was from the same phone tower close to the airbase. By afternoon, the three phones were switched off. Officials presume the terrorists would not have got an opportunity to charge the batteries. The terrorists opened the attack only around 3.30 a.m. on January 2 when they killed five unarmed Defence Security Corps personnel in their barracks.

Preliminary investigations reveal the terrorists were not carrying any phone as no calls were made from a Pakistan number to another Pakistan number from the airbase, the official said. The four calls to Pakistan, intercepted by the agencies, were made from the airbase with Mr. Verma’s phone.

“Till the time the alert was sounded, and NSG commandos were rushed on the night of January 1, the attackers were already there at the airbase. We analysed the cell phone location and the calls only on January 2 when the attack had begun. The Punjab Police informed us only by afternoon,” said the official.

Call records point to Multan

The intercepted calls reveal that the terrorists who attacked the airbase in Pathankot spoke in Multani dialect, commonly used in the districts of Multan, Lodhran and Bahawalpur in southern Punjab of Pakistan.

“This type of Punjabi is not spoken in India. The Multani dialect is common in south Punjab, Pakistan. This is a crucial pointer to the attackers being Pakistanis,” a senior official told The Hindu.

Three types of weapon on terrorists

An initial assessment has revealed that the terrorists who were neutralised at the airbase had at least three types of weapons: AK-47 rifles, mortars and primed grenades.

Only Garud commando died fighting the terrorists

A senior government official said that only the Garud commando died in the combat, the five DSC personnel did not get time to defend themselves as they were caught unaware.

The NSG commando reportedly died while handling the dead body of one of the terrorists and he touched the ‘primed grenade’ with bare hands. An official said the NSG has telescopic manipulator or water jet disruptor, which could have been used to defuse the grenade.