Pathankot air base attacked; 8 dead

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service 

Pathankot, January 2

Dressed in army fatigues, a group of five terrorists, suspected to belong to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), entered the Pathankot Air Force base in the wee hours today and engaged security forces in a fierce gunbattle lasting several hours, before four of them were killed in the morning. The fifth terrorist could be neutralised at only around 7 pm, almost 15 hours after they struck. 

Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said two Defence Security Corps (DSC) men and an Air Force commando also died in the attack. DSC personnel are retired Armymen who are reemployed to undertake guard duties at static establishments. Earlier reports had put the number of DSC casualties at five. Arora said the terrorists belonged to JeM. 

The attack took place hours after the Pathankot police and the Army launched a massive combing operation in the area falling between Chakki river and the rear gate of the air base.

Yesterday, a Gurdaspur-based SP-rank officer had claimed that five terrorists had kidnapped him at 3 am on January 1, before freeing him and his two acquaintances just outside the rear gate of the Air Force station an hour later. 

All security agencies had been put on high alert and the elite National Security Guards too had been rushed to Pathankot last night. The security agencies had been working on the theory that the five "Urdu-speaking fidayeen" could be targeting the strategic defence installations in this border city. 

Search operations were launched for these five suspects by 5 pm yesterday and by 8 pm, the entire city had virtually shut down. 

The terrorists are believed to have entered the air base from the rear gate and their target was said to be the hangars where combat aircraft, including a MiG-21 squadron and an MI-35 attack helicopter unit, are located. As the ultras snooped their way into the station around 3 am, the Air Force claimed they were detected by aerial surveillance platforms. 

By 5 am, nearly 300 Armymen were deployed along with Armoured Personal Carriers (APC). The IAF also used choppers for surveillance and engaged the terrorists with aerial firing. An IAF statement said they were contained immediately, preventing them from reaching the technical area. 

This is the second major attack in a city bordering  Pakistan. In July, three Lashkar-e-Toiba ultras had executed a terror strike in Dinanagar, killing seven people, including an SP-rank officer. Dinanagar is 20 km away from Pathankot.  

Senior police officers said the target was to destroy military installations in and around Pathankot. “That is why they did not take the SP  hostage as it would have created a furore. They had bigger plans,” an officer said.