Pathankot terrorist attack​ a penalty for communication gap ​in​ forces?

The terrorist attack on Pathankot Indian air force base and the subsequent tragic death of 7 Indian brave soldiers while neutralising the terrorists during the combing operations is an indication of lack of preparedness to such eventualities. While we cannot stop praising the bravery of our armed forces who fought from the front and neutralised the terrorists, it is a great human loss and the entire country's attention was captured for two valuable days.

Time has come to seriously introspect the incident as it is a failure of various agencies. First of all, the Border Security Force could not trace out from where these terrorists crossed into India by cutting down the fence. The BSF initially stated that they have not found traces of fence cutting and also they did not find any CCTV recording of the intruders. These intrusions might have taken place long ago which may have been overwritten the recordings.

Secondly, when these terrorists captured the SP's blue beacon vehicle nearly 24 hours before the air force base attack there was enough time for all security agencies and sensitive defence establishments to be on guard against any eventuality without human and time loss. There is a sure failure of coordination of communication between state police and defence establishments. There should be a panic button alert in sensitive locations where this kind of defence establishments exist so that everyone can be prepared to face the challenge.

Thirdly, the air force base station also has no clue on how many intruders came in and when and how they intruded. Initially, they found 4 terrorists and later the count extended to six and still the operations are going on based on the explosions or on the gun shots that are being fired. We are not in position to comb the area without loopholes which indicates the lack of preparedness on the part of air force security.

This is second successive terrorist intrusion incident in 6 months in the state of Punjab and no lessons are learnt (very harsh to use these words against our own forces but it is inevitable). Both central and state governments should seriously treat this as a challenge and see that it is never repeated. One can recollect the shootout in Paris terror attack where so many civil casualties were reported at the hands of terrorists, but we do not hear of loss of military or armed forces while neutralizing the terrorists. Why should we lose our brave men? What is required to keep our forces fight terror without any harm is the question haunting the government of India.

By Raghu Bhushan Eranki
Rajahmundry

The Views expressed in this article are personal and those of the author.