‘State failed to avert terror attacks despite timely alerts’
Thursday, 21/01/2016
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PATHANKOT: Former state Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said the state government could not avert the terror attack on Pathankot airbase, despite having timely alert from the intelligence agencies.
Taking a dig on chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, Bajwa said that as the police force of Gurdaspur and Batala districts was deputed for the CM’s sangat darshan programme on the day the terrorists entered the area, the thin presence of security forces gave a chance to the ultras who later attacked Pathankot airbase.
Mocking Gurdaspur MP Vinod Khanna for his long absences from his constituency, Bajwa said the terrorists visited his constituency twice in six months, but the actor- turned-politician visited it just once and that too after a huge criticism.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Bajwa said the security deployments seemed to be still on the same pattern even after the new alerts issued by the IB and other agencies here. He said that as inputs had been provided that 15 terrorists had sneaked in, only six had been neutralised, which had left the residents in panic.
He said the National Insvestigating Agency (NIA) should find out the nexus between the black sheep in uniform
and politicians with the drug smugglers and terrorists. In just six months, they had struck twice in this area, he added.
“The villages must have the local defence committees and there is a need to train and arm the youths to assist the BSF and the local police as was done in 1962,” Bajwa said. The border dstricts must get additional force to prevent militant attacks in future, he said.
