New Delhi, January 3 (IANS): The terror attack at the Pathankot air base may have raised questions on the about-to-be-resumed official dialogue between India and Pakistan, but experts say the best response to such incidents would be to continue the peace process that has just begun.
India has long maintained terror originating from across the border should stop for the peace talks to deliver. However, the recently resumed dialogue process, and the surprise visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan on his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif's birthday, appeared to write new chapters in the annals of bilateral diplomacy.
The attack at the frontline Indian Air Force (IAF) base in northern Punjab, around 30 km from the international border, coming within days of Modi's maiden visit to Pakistan, might have made a dent, but the balanced response from both the countries have raised hopes. The five terrorists who staged the attack were killed in a gunbattle that lasted for 15 hours. Three Indian security personnel were also killed.
Pakistan immediately condemned the attack and expressed its commitment to partner with India to eradicate terrorism. Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, while stating that terror will be given a "befitting reply", added that India wants peace.
Former Indian Army chief, General V.P. Malik, described the attack as "minor" and said it was unlikely to disrupt the dialogue process. He also said that following Prime Minister Modi's visit to Lahore, the stakes are high as the blame or credit will go completely to him.
"We must look at the prime minister's visit as a strategic engagement; with one engagement everything cannot fall in place," General Malik said, adding: "The second thing is that this particular event is a minor one; so its impact on the dialogue process will not be much." The former army chief also said that the attack could not have been planned following Modi's Pakistan visit. "Such attacks are planned months in advance..." he said.
Stressing on the requirement of the dialogue process, General Malik said: "At the moment what has happened is that the prime minister's personal involvement is at stake... Earlier we could blame the foreign policy, but now fingers will only be pointed at him."
Happymon Jacob, Associate Professor of Disarmament Studies in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said that the talks should be continued not only along the formal lines but also through back channels to counter the menace of terrorism. "Every time a dialogue process is started between India and Pakistan something happens, and this time is no exception. It shows militant organisations on that side are not happy with the dialogue," Jacob told IANS.
"India should respond to this attack by enhancing surveillance and defence capabilities and at the same time not calling off the talks," Jacob said.
Stressing on the need for back channel talks, he said: "There should be back channel talks with the Pakistan Army and ISI as well... Now that they have taken up this ambitious dialogue, it should be concluded."
From the other side of the border, Yaqoob Khan Bangash, a history professor at Lahore's Information Technology University, spoke on similar lines, adding that India accepts that the Pakistani state is not behind terror attacks.
"I don't think the Indian side is going to withdraw from the dialogue process. The Indian side has accepted Pakistan's argument that all terrorist attacks are not from the Pakistani state. If India had not recognised this argument, they would not have gone forward with the talks," Bangash told IANS on the phone from Lahore.
Bangash said the Pakistan Army is largely on board the peace talks, adding that continuing the dialogue will be the best reply to the terrorists. "There is a constituency in Pakistan that does not want India-Pakistan peace, but the two governments should not bow down to these entities. If we stop talking, it will encourage them".
"The government of India should strengthen the hand of Pakistan in fighting terror. The Indian government knows the political government is in support of peace with India," Bangash said, addding that the two countries should share intelligence.
Bangash also said that Modi's Pakistan visit had a huge positive impact. That will be one of the factors pushing forward the talks. "Modi's visit to Lahore changed the scenario quite a bit. He has shown he is a statesman," Bangash added.
Probe launched into '24 hours' of terrorists' presence before Pathankot air base attack
Pathankot (Punjab): Security agencies in Punjab are investigating the movement of terrorists 24 hours before they launched a pre-dawn Fidayeen attack on the IAF base near here on Saturday, especially in context of the resources they may have used to reach the high-security target after sneaking into India from the border with Pakistan.
The security and investigation agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), are trying to reconstruct events from the night of Dec 30-31 to the terror attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base around 3.30 a.m. on Saturday. They want to know how the suspected Pakistani terrorists, numbering five, could easily make it to the frontier IAF base despite intelligence inputs that they were going to target a high profile defence target in the area.
"The first report about the terrorists being in the area came early on Friday (Jan 1). For nearly 30 hours, they remained inside Indian territory. For 24 hours before the IAF air base attack, information on the terrorists was available after the senior police officer and two others were abducted in his car. The vehicle, with a blue beacon, was used to pass through security barricades from the border belt up to Pathankot," a senior Punjab Police officer told IANS.
The lapses on the part of the Border Security Force (BSF) in preventing infiltration from Pakistan in the Bamiyal sector, adjoining Gurdaspur (Punjab) and Kathua (Jammu and Kashmir) districts, and the Punjab Police, which looks after security of areas near the border belt, are now being investigated at the highest level, top police sources said.
Investigating officers said the terrorists killed a taxi driver and injured the friend of the police officer by slitting their throats with sharp-edged weapons and deliberately did not use the AK-47 and other weaponry they had to ensure that their identity was not revealed before the terror attack and the incidents looked like "normal crime".
The terrorists, who are believed to have entered India through the Ravi river along the barbed wire fenced international border, about 35 km from here, on Dec 30-31 night are suspected to have booked an Toyota Innova multi-utility vehicle (PB 06-G-0061) in the border belt through a call made from a Pakistani number.
"Smugglers on both sides of the border may be using local support for their activities. The same may have been used by the terrorists," said the police officer.
The Innova driver, Ikagar Singh, 30, of Bhagwal village near the border, could have picked up a fight with the terrorists after they got into his car, according to the police.
Tell-tale signs of the Innova hitting a tree near Kolia village on the Bamiyal-Pathankot road and getting badly damaged and the blood spattered in nearby agricultural fields indicated the move of the taxi driver to stop the terrorists from proceeding further and he being killed in cold blood by the terrorists.
Since two tyres of the Innova got burst in this process, the terrorists waited on the road for some other vehicle to pass by which they could stop.
At this point, the Mahindra XUV of Punjab Police Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who was coming back after offering prayers at a nearby shrine, came near where the terrorists were stranded. The terrorists, who were in army fatigues, signalled the car to stop.
As it did, the terrorists forcibly entered it and hijacked it. They hit the officer and his companions with weapon butts and drove towards Pathankot. Since the car had a blue beacon, it was not stopped by security personnel at the Punjab Police picket at Kathlaur bridge on Ravi river or any other barricades ahead.
While the officer was dumped after some distance, they slit the throat of his friend, Rajesh Verma, and left him for dead near Akalgarh village, close to the IAF base. The terrorists abandoned the XUV near Akalgarh village. "From the time they abandoned the vehicle to the time of the attack, there was a gap of nearly 24 hours. The terrorists must have been hiding somewhere. If they were out in the open, someone may have spotted them. This needs to be investigated," the senior police officer said. During this time, the terrorists took away the mobile phone of the officer and made calls to their handlers in Pakistan. One terrorist even called his mother in Bahawalpur in Pakistan.
