SSB Lecturette Series: The ugly case of Pathankot

The recent Pathankot incident in which six terrorists that are suspected to belong to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) entered into the Indian Air Force base is a clear indication of poor decision making of the senior members of the security establishments, the lack of seriousness towards the inputs provided by the intelligence agencies and unpreparedness in securing the most vulnerable areas which are best designs for the terror attacks.

The Pathankot attack is one of the events aimed at ruining the peace-making acts between India and Pakistan. This comes after the surprise stopover of Indian Prime Minister Narender Modi at Lahore and his rendezvous with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif which showed the signs of improving relationships between the two countries that shared sour bilateral ties in the past. The successful meeting ignited the hopes of improving Indo-Pak relationships after a long time. In order to encourage greater engagements between the two countries, a meeting was scheduled on January, 15 between the Foreign Secretaries so that there should not occur any halt to the talks.  But this did not go well with the terror outfits who want the tensions to persist between the neighboring countries.

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The whole incident which claimed the lives of seven military personnel shows how incorrectly such a sensitive case was handled by the top security officials. This leads to a series of questions that need to be asked about the way security operations are carried out. First, the alerts given by the intelligence agency regarding the terrorists where not tackled with seriousness. Second, when the information about the terrorist infiltration to Pathankot was given by the abducted Superintendent of Police, Salwant Singh, the actions that were taken then onwards raise serious questions. Third, decision taken to call in NSG commandos from Delhi after a meeting chaired the National Security Advisors was completely senseless. In the presence of the Army units in Pathankot itself, what made the security agencies to airlift NSG from Delhi which wasted a lot of time. This clearly indicates lack of awareness about the roles of different security groups and lack of coordination in their activities. These are the loopholes which worsened the situations and gave undue advantage to the terrorists in easing out their operations.

Following the identification of the professional terror groups whose sources are linked to Pakistan, 72 hours of deadline given to Pakistan by the PM in tracing them using the samples provided by India is commendable. But the quality and quantity of information made available from the Pakistan end will determine the future course of actions between the two countries. But the meeting between the foreign secretaries should not be cancelled as this will deter any chances of improvement in the relations and will further strengthen the resolve of these religious fanatics. It also calls for improvement in the existing protocols to tackle such situations in future.

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About the Author: Arshdeep Kaur is an Electronics and Communication Engineer who is working in one of the leading MNCs in Bangalore. Born and brought up in Delhi, she is exploring her interests in the areas of writing