It took four days, seven lives and 22 injuries to put the terrorist attack on Pathankot air base to an end. Pathankot incident is highly condemnable and is a nightmare for all those who fancied cross-border trade routes, economic relations and peaceful future of this region. Sadly, the showdown raised many questions on the Indian government and military establishment. World media is calling India’s response to the attack ‘a debacle’ where a botched operation exposed Indian armed forces professional capabilities. Even with prior intelligence information, the Indian army failed to secure the base. They even failed to locate the terrorists despite getting detailed intercepts of their conversations.
The national security advisor of India seems to be obsessed with Jaish-e-Muhammad whereas another group took responsibility of the attack. The operation was taken over by more than 120 National Security Guard commandoes. The most surprising part of story is abduction of superintendent of police Salwinder Singh (main suspect now) by five young men and Punjab police’s silly response to this high level abduction. There was no collaboration between the agencies, army and police. However, as a responsible neighbour PM Nawaz Sharif’s statement to take prompt action against any Pakistan-based groups involved in the attack is welcomed.
QURAT-UL-AIN FATIMA
Lahore