The shocking terror attack at the Pathankot Indian Air Force base marked a somewhat gruesome beginning of the new year for India. While combing operations are still going on at the air base, The Logical Indian goes through the attack and neutralization operation.
A group of six terrorists entered India through the Kathua-Gurdaspur border in Punjab. The terrorists took an Innova car from a taxidriver, Ikagar Singh, who they killed near the Kathlor bridge. However, the car broke down shortly and at about 11:30 pm, they carjacked Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh and abducted him in his own car.
The terrorists had thought Singh to be a commoner, but on finding out he was a policeman, they pushed him off the car. At around 3 am, Singh gained his consciousness and alerted the local police about the terrorists. Allegedly, the police did not pay heed to his claims.
The center issued an alert about terrorists being present at Pathankot. The NSA convened meetings with senior officials and a band of NSG commandos was dispatched to the location.
the terrorists breached IAF base security. When they were detected with thermal imaging, attack copters were used to attack them with rockets. Four terrorists were killed by evening. 1 IAF commando and 1 jawan were martyred in the process. The Home Minister announced that the operation was over successfully.
Lt Col Niranjan, a member of the NSG’s Bomb Disposal Squad, was killed while he was defusing the grenade at the scene of the terror attack as part of the combing operations that continued through the night. Four other security men were also injured in the blast.
Niranjan’s body will be brought to Bangalore, where his family currently resides, and it will be kept for public to pay their respects. Later it will be brought to his native village of Elumbulassery in Kerala where the cremation will take place.
Meanwhile, the joint combing operation was still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident. Some senior officials of the Punjab Police led by DGP Suresh Arora are also present here. The official said the operation will end only after a thorough search, going on inside the IAF base and nearby areas.
The attackers were believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan and there was speculation that they may belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad headed Maulana Masood Azhar of the Kandahar hijack episode.
The terrorists sneaked into the nearly 2000-acre air base through a forested area where they were confronted by the Quick Reaction Team of Garud commandos. They managed to go up to 400 metres but were still 700 metres away from the area where the IAF aircraft fighters were stationed.
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