Pathankot attack: Security agencies ill-prepared, govt response inadequate, says scathing report of Standing Committee

The Standing Committee of Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday pulled up the Centre for the January 2 Pathankot terror attack, saying had the Centre been serious and the intelligence agencies had functioned properly, then the picture would have been entirely different.

Pradip Bhattacharya, the Chairman of the Standing Committee said security agencies were ill-prepared to anticipate the threats in time and to counter them swiftly.

"The committee is unable to understand how terrorists managed to reach the Pathankot airbase in spite of terror alerts being sounded well in advance. The security agencies were ill-prepared to anticipate the threats in time and counter them swiftly," Bhattacharya claimed.

"We had a long interaction with officers at the Pathankot airbase. They said they had no information that their airbase would be attacked. He got information early in the morning, that too not from Punjab, but from the Delhi Air Force. How did it happen? Who gave this information to Delhi Air Force? These are remarkable things to search out," he added.

He also said that during the visit to the Pathankot airbase, the committee found that the airbase security was not robust.

"We urge upon the Government of India to take this report seriously and take appropriate steps. Even today, there are very unsafe conditions at the Pathankot airbase," he said.

The Pathankot air base was attacked by heavily armed terrorists reportedly having allegiance to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in which four terrorists and three security forces personnel were killed.

A five-member Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising Additional Inspector General of Police (IGP), a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), two Lt. Colonels and one inspector, from Pakistan had visited India between March 27-31 to collect, review and document physical evidences and to interview key witnesses and victims through the NIA in connection with the Pathankot attack.

Just a few days after the Pakistani JIT probing the Pathankot attack admitted that the four terrorists who attacked the Pathankot Indian Air Force base were from Pakistan, the JIT had said that the attack had been staged by India, according to a Pakistani media report.

The JIT "says the attack was a drama staged to malign Pakistan," according to a report in Pakistan Today.

It further said that the JIT report, which was submitted to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the next few days, had even concluded that Indian authorities had prior information about the terrorists.

Meanwhile, on April 28, the Centre had told told the Rajya Sabha that Pakistan had been clearly told that it should allow an Indian probe team to visit that country in connection with Pathankot terror attack as reciprocity was the principle on which Pakistan's JIT was allowed to visit here.

At the time of writing, India and Pakistan maintain their differences on the sequence of events related to the attack.