Indian Air Base at Pathankot under attack by gunmen.

[Ankit Kumar]

https://twitter.com/x/status/683870380327501824

 

[Levina]

Some points by Ex IA/IAF ppl

Major General (retired) Satbir Singh

• How can this operation, he asked, be called a professional operation when the terrorists managed to come 25 km inside near the area where we have vital air assets and seven people were killed in 36 hours and 20 seriously injured.
• "It means our intelligence agencies are not working at all. There is no co-ordination. There is no actionable intelligence,”
• "The responsibility of the IB does not stop after merely issuing alerts. Its responsibility is to ensure that actionable intelligence goes all over.
• And mind you, I am not isolating military when I said it was the failure of all intelligence and executing agencies. The entire system has failed.”

Air Vice Marshal (retired) Kapil Kak

• "You (the government) had specific inputs 24 hours in advance that Punjab is going to be struck, why was security of vital installations was not beefed up?
• You did not coordinate well enough to prevent terrorists from getting inside the airbase.
• You got 24 hours. It takes only six hours to deploy a battalion around the perimeter.
• Had they been deployed in time, the terrorists would have never dared to climb the wall and cross the concertina wire and get inside.
• Had there been action in time, seven lives would have been saved,”
• "Where were the police? They knew the last position. So, the police and decision making at the highest level were below par because they had all the time, security forces to decide to protect the airbase.
• There could have been three-layer security.
• This is a disaster at the strategic level,”

The fact is the IAF and the NSG lost their one officer each. Four DSC guards were apparently gunned down in their mess and one DSC jawan was killed after he killed a terrorist.

@ranjeet :Seems India Today picture was correct. The Ex IAF person also talked about the same mess/langar as depicted in this. Pasting it here again

• AVM Kak Said, "The Pakistan Army or the ISI do not have a hand in this incident. Though it goes against the grains of public opinion in India, but I say it very openly and with firmness. I don't say it in psychological or instinctive terms but in analytical term,”

@Khafee @Irfan Baloch @Oscar @Levina @deckingraj @Ankit Kumar @others

Intelligence agencies had got a very vague information. They had no idea whether it would be army cantt or Air Force station that would be attacked. Even if they had alerted entire Punjab this attack would have happened.
I strongly believe that our agencies were able to thawrt a massacre.
And despite being called the best agencies CIA and FBI could not prevent 9/11 remember??

The only thing that disturbs is the kidnapping of SP.

 

[Maarkhoor]

Fresh firing at Pathankot air base; Army deploys reinforcements in area
Fresh firing has been reported at the Pathankot Air Force base with more terrorists suspected to be holed up in the area. Reinforcements have been sent to the area of operation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in the national capital on Sunday evening, and directly went into a huddle with senior officials including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and others to discuss the terror strike. More...

Forty hours into the operation against the terrorists who stormed the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, investigating agencies have not yet made any significant recoveries that could give a clue to their identity or the route they took to enter India
Identity of terrorists still unclear

Pathankot attack: Identity of terrorists still unclear - The Hindu

Forty hours into the operation against the terrorists who stormed the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, investigating agencies have not yet made any significant recoveries that could give a clue to their identity or the route they took to enter India.

A top intelligence officer told The Hindu they were not sure whether the terrorists belonged to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Their initial presumption was based on a piece of paper recovered from SP Salwinder Singh’s vehicle, which was snatched by the terrorists and abandoned later. “It is all a presumption till now that they belonged to JeM. We have not recovered any GPS sets yet that could have given clues about their location. It could be LeT as well… we don’t know yet,” said the intelligence official.

All operations to retrieve some kind of identification from the slain terrorists were suspended after NSG commando Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan died while handling a body. A senior official said a grenade, hidden in the terrorist’s shirt pocket, exploded when the Lt. Col tried to drag the body to another location, a standard drill in such cases. A team of the National Investigation Agency, which has been camping in Pathankot for the past two-days, has not made any recoveries as the operation was still on.

A senior government official said the Border Security Force (BSF) had scanned footages from the surveillance cameras installed along Punjab’s and Jammu’s border with Pakistan. “There has been no breach along the fences…. For the past three days, we have also checked the border areas for some kind of tunnel, but haven’t found anything yet,” the official said.

He said the BSF sent out teams to different locations near the Pakistan border, from the two places where the slain taxi driver’s and SP Salwinder Singh’s vehicles were found abandoned by the terrorists, but failed to trace the route the intruders could have possibly taken.

Another official said the terrorists stagger themselves in groups during fidayeen attacks and wait for an opportune moment, when a number of security personnel have assembled to clear up the area, to strike. This was done, he said, to inflict maximum casualties.

Keywords: Pathankot attack, Pathankot Air Force base attack

 

[cerberus]

One of the news agency claimed that the surviving terrorist is cornered.
So I guess there are more.

Let me tell you Me Punjab police less prepared for such attacks

Secondly the intel of terrorist were very accurate only a intelligence agencies Can provide you such accurate intel about indian military installation

Thirdly terrorist cannot cross such heavly guarded border without being noticed Or with help of Pak rangers

So I have to disagree with @PARIKRAMA that ISI is not in the part of this attack

 

[Parul]

The uneventful drive back from a religious shrine on Friday evening didn’t take much time to turn into a nightmare for Madan Gopal, one of the three abducted by the terrorists who stormed the Pathankot air base on Saturday morning.

Mr. Gopal, the cook of former Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salvinder Singh, spoke to The Hindu at his residence on Sunday morning as fighting continued a few kilometres away between the security forces and terrorists, almost 35 hours after the terrorists stormed the forward base of the Indian Air Force.

Mr. Gopal, Mr. Singh and the latter's jeweller friend, Rajesh Verma, were abducted on Thursday late night. And on Friday early morning, at around 2 a.m., Mr. Gopal and Mr. Singh were freed.

Mr. Gopal alleged that not only was the vital information he shared with the police immediately after he was freed ignored but also he was brutally tortured by the Punjab Police.

On their way from Pathankot to Gurdaspur, the ordeal of the trio started at Kolian area where Mr. Gopal and others were signalled to stop by five men dressed in Army fatigues and carrying assault rifles. They already had another vehicle which they had obtained after murdering a taxi driver.

It was nearly midnight and they were on a isolated stretch when the uniformed men stopped them.

"Mr. Verma was driving the SUV with Mr. Singh sitting next to him while I was in the middle passenger seat. In a flash, we were overpowered with Mr. Verma being the first one to be forcefully evicted and stuffed inside the boot," said Mr. Gopal.

"They dragged Mr. Singh out of the car and sandwiched him between the front and middle seats, something they did to me as well. Two of them sat on us after tying up our limbs, taping our eyes and gagging our mouths," he added.

Two of the attackers then sat over the duo. Mr. Gopal recalled the attackers talking to each other but is fairly certain that the language used by most of them "wasn't Punjabi".

"Only one of them uttered few words in broken Punjabi, which is why I could not comprehend much. The other familiar words I heard were Asalam Alaikum. From the voices, I could sense they were young men," said Mr. Gopal.

Neither Mr. Gopal nor Mr. Singh (in his purported disclosure to the police) could remember the routes they were driven on in the hijacked car but it was a dense forest close to the base where they were eventually dumped. The assailants drove away with Mr. Verma still inside the boot.

Mr. Gopal then heard his senior's voice: "Madan let's try and get out of this forest." It was Mr. Singh who managed to free himself first and he freed Mr. Gopal.

"The darkness, dense bushes and tall grasses made it extremely difficult for us to navigate out of the forest. When we eventually did, after walking for two hours and even encountering a canal, we were in a village," said Mr. Gopal.

Villagers helped Mr. Singh to contact his seniors. "He called up Gurdaspur SSP Gurpreet Singh and told him that those who had kidnapped us could be militants," recounted Mr. Gopal.

He added that his hope of police rushing him to safety was immediately dashed when they were taken to the Sadar police station in Pathankot.

"I was repeatedly assaulted even as I kept insisting that whatever I had told them was true. My fears were proved right when the base was attacked but the local police as well as some intelligence officers kept torturing me even after the gun battle started. This is all I get after serving this force for 40 years," said Mr. Gopal, a Class IV staff of Punjab Police, who got an extension after retiring last year.

Punjab DGP and SSP Pathankot were unavailable for comment, despite repeated attempts by The Hindu.

m.thehindu.com/news/national/exclusive-police-tortured-key-pathankot-terror-witness/article8061330.ece

 

[Maarkhoor]

Let me tell you Me Punjab police less prepared for such attacks

Secondly the intel of terrorist were very accurate only a intelligence agencies Can provide you such accurate intel about indian military installation

Thirdly terrorist cannot cross such heavly guarded border without being noticed Or with help of Pak rangers

So I have to disagree with @PARIKRAMA that ISI is not in the part of this attack

How you got confirmation they cross the border have any proof ? don't talk baseless allegation. check the facts then post. Your BSF always sleeping while terrorists cross the border ? Is India banana republic can't guard its fenced border, anybody can cross the border and attack heavily guarded airbase despite intel info of the attack. Is Pakistan responsible to guard your national assets ?

 

[Spectre]

Intelligence agencies had got a very vague information. They had no idea whether it would be army cantt or Air Force station that would be attacked. Even if they had alerted entire Punjab this attack would have happened.
I strongly believe that our agencies were able to thawrt a massacre.
And despite being called the best agencies CIA and FBI could not prevent 9/11 remember??

The only thing that disturbs is the kidnapping of SP.

The thing which should concern us the most are:

1. Penetration of subversive elements and foreign assetss within Security Apparatus leading to leakages. Such an attack is not possible without detailed insider information. I have been to Air-forces bases and let me just say it is not easy to attack them and survive their for multiple days unless you know the vulnerabilities and layout.

2. Re-assess the training and tactics manual - such protracted affairs lasting three days have detrimental effect on National Moral and further embolden the terrorists.

3. Re-assess the counter terrorism operations - If there are frequent infiltration from the same source then steps need to be taken to close the gaps in physical infrastructure. We are in state of war - make no mistake, this attack and others are a reminder about the ease with which terrorists operate. We sadly over-estimated our capabilities. The first step towards correction is acceptance of the problem.

4. Re-asses strategic policy towards Pakistan - Even though the attack may not be sanctioned it is but obvious there is still ample support from elements within establishment. We have to adjust to the fact that GoP is not in full control and take measures accordingly with respect to hitting these bast@rds where they hurt. We have to extract a cost - otherwise these waves would keep coming. US for all it's fault has managed to prevent another attack on it's soil after 9/11. Now I understand US does not have Pakistan as it's neighbor but it does have Mexico where similar drug lords operate who infringe on US soil as per will, but DEA and CIA have been smart enough to subvert them.

5. Surveillance - India sadly needs to invest the Billions in surveillance capabilities in form of extensive CCTV coverage, NSA type data gathering and analysis.

Regards

 

[Levina]

hirdly terrorist cannot cross such heavly guarded border without being noticed Or with help of Pak rangers

The issue is just that.
I had earlier mentioned it on this thread that out of the 553km long border that Punjab has, about 441km is unfenced due to riverine terrain, with just 178 border posts.
This attack could have been prevented had the (local) authorities been a little more alert. Punjab border is notorious for drug dealers. Albeit, I can see good amount of preparedness on IA and IAF's part, and ergo today we can proudly claim that our assets are safe.

 

[cerberus]

How you got confirmation they cross the border have any proof ? don't talk baseless allegation. check the facts then post.

Gps devices that have recovered from terrorist..

Secondly Even in last attack we recovered Gps that was of US orgin Americans has also has been taken into notice Last time

Intel was generated prior two day before the attack
Our assets in your establishment notified us prior to the attack that's how intel is generated.

 

[Parul]

Punjab Police did what it's best at - Ignored the evidence and consequence + Tortured the eye witness. One has to admit that thier has been serious security lapses even the retired Army Personnels are saying this.

Let me tell you Me Punjab police less prepared for such attacks

Secondly the intel of terrorist were very accurate only a intelligence agencies Can provide you such accurate intel about indian military installation

Thirdly terrorist cannot cross such heavly guarded border without being noticed Or with help of Pak rangers

So I have to disagree with @PARIKRAMA that ISI is not in the part of this attack

 

[Inception-06]

Let me tell you Me Punjab police less prepared for such attacks

Secondly the intel of terrorist were very accurate only a intelligence agencies Can provide you such accurate intel about indian military installation

Thirdly terrorist cannot cross such heavly guarded border without being noticed Or with help of Pak rangers

So I have to disagree with @PARIKRAMA that ISI is not in the part of this attack

Wenn du dir so sicher bist, flieg doch zurück nach Indien, um 100 prozentige Beweise zu sammeln, dass der ISI daran beteiligt ist, ansonsten sagt man in diplomatischer Sprache:" Shut up" du kannst ja entscheiden

 

[Maarkhoor]

If suppose they cross the border then..

BSF failed ...failed to guard Indian border despite many attacks always sleeping
SP vehicle snatched a day before no action Punjab Police failed.
Attack the airbase despite beefed up security Indian Army failed to protect its assets.
3 days long operation
All the special forces failed even don't know how many terrorist attacked and how many killed.

RIP for all those who killed in line of duty. I am sure i am not cheering but sad.

Tell me who is at fault Pakistan ? is Pakistan is responsible to guard India ?

 

[noksss]

If suppose they cross the border then..

BSF failed ...failed to guard Indian border despite many attacks always sleeping
SP vehicle snatched a day before no action Punjab Police failed.
Attack the airbase despite beefed up security Indian Army failed to protect its assets.
3 days long operation
All the special forces failed even don't know how many terrorist attacked and how many killed.

RIP for all those who killed in line of duty. I am sure i am not cheering but sad.

Tell me who is at fault Pakistan ? is Pakistan is responsible to guard India ?

Don't know what's the real scenario inside the base there is more than what it meets the eye . There was no firing for 17 hours inside the base from Saturday evening to Sunday noon and everyone assumed the operation to be over and then again the firing started and no one is sure how many terrorist are currently being engaged . The real answer from the intelligence sleuths should be on how the terrorist managed to hide for 17 hrs. inside the base and start the firing again

 

[cerberus]

The issue is just that.
I had earlier mentioned it on this thread that out of the 553km long border that Punjab has, about 441km is unfenced due to riverine terrain, with just 178 border posts.
This attack could have been prevented had the (local) authorities been a little more alert. Punjab border is notorious for drug dealers. Albeit, I can see good amount of preparedness on IA and IAF's part, and ergo today we can proudly claim that our assets are safe.

There is various check points before you reach near the actual border

And @Levina your information is inaccurate
India fenced and flood-lit 461 kms of Punjab’s border with Pakistan from 1988 to 1993. The 1,048 km Rajasthan- Pakistan border was fenced and flood- lit by 1999. “Due to this, terrorism and other anti- national acts from across the border have been checked,” said a Parliamentary Standing Committee report on Border Fencing.

Only Challenges remained on the contentious Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir and the unfenced 93 km of Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

 

[Maarkhoor]

Don't know what's the real scenario inside the base there is more than what it meets the eye . There was no firing for 17 hours inside the base from Saturday evening to Sunday noon and everyone assumed the operation to be over and then again the firing started and no one is sure how many terrorist are currently being engaged . The real answer from the intelligence sleuths should be on how the terrorist managed to hide for 17 hrs. inside the base and start the firing again

This is not the answer of my post...anyways even you don't know how many terrorist attacked the air base how can you people blame Pakistan directly without any proof even operation is still underway. Last time Gurdaspur attack GPS recovered blame Pakistan but then every one mums in India over the attack. Why ? is it by default to blame Pakistan for every security failure while 25 plus freedom movements struggling against Indian union.