Pathankot terror attack: 2 Jan 2016

Terrorist who attacked Pathankot airbase may have entered in two batches, with one reaching the target before abduction of Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh prompted the security agencies to sound an alert.

According to sources, SP's jeweller friend Rajesh Verma, who was also in the car that was hijacked by 4 terrorists on Friday, has claimed in his statement that he listened the conversation between the terrorists and their associates, traced by the intelligence agencies to Pakistan, in which the latter ask them how the "other" terrorists had reached the "target" while they hadn't.

"This indicates that at least two terrorists may have sneaked into the encounter area of the Pathankot Air Force base well before the alert was sounded on Friday evening. They possibly hid there, using the elephant grass as there cover, before the reinforcement comprising the remaining four terrorists arrived," said a senior officer.

The security forces have reportedly neutralized the two remaining terrorists holed up inside the Pathankot Air Force base, more than two days after the terrorists attacked it. While the remains of the fifth terrorist have been spotted by the forces, the sixth terrorist, whose body may have been badly damaged in the encounter, is yet to be identified.

The killing of the sixth terrorists will be confirmed once his body is seen, said sources. There was no firing from the fidayeens's end through Monday, said intelligence sources.

Four terrorists were killed on Saturday evening, the first day of the terror attack.

The sanitization and combing operations at the Pathankot Air Force base are expected to continue for the next one or two days.
The AK-47s used by the terrorists were improvised versions like a mortar launcher, the sources have revealed.
Dismissing allegations that the Indian counter-forces had failed to prevent the attack despite prior intelligence, a senior officer of the security establishment said the first priority of the forces that mounted the multi-agency counter-operation was to secure the inner periphery, enclosing the technical area where all airforce assets were located, and only then follow up with securing the outer periphery," said a senior officer.

Stating that the counter-forces successfully prevented from the terrorists from gaining access to the inner periphery and managed to contain them at a safe distance from the airforce assets, followed by their neutralisation, the officer said some casualties were not unusual in such a multi-agency operation.

With the NIA set to take over three cases related to the Pathankot attack -- the main attack, the abduction of the SP and killing of the taxi driver who ferried the fidayeen -- a key point of probe will be if the weapons and ammunition used by the terrorists were dumped in the area before the terrorists came in, and if this involved smuggling networks active in the area.

"It may not have been possible for the terrorists to carry so much ammunition...we need to probe if the weapons and ammunition were dumped here beforehand," said a senior intelligence officer.