Something is ‘seriously wrong’ with the country’s counter-terror security establishment, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Pathankot terror attack observed on Tuesday.
The panel also observed that the Pakistan Joint Investigation Team (JIT) should not have been allowed to visit the Pathankot airbase, which was attacked by terrorists in January 2016.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Home Affairs, Pradip Bhattacharya (INC MP from West Bengal) said that the committee was “unable to understand” how security at the Pathankot airbase was compromised despite alerts in advance.
The committee is unable to understand how terrorists managed to reach Pathankot airbase, despite terror alerts that were sounded well in advance. Security agencies were ill-prepared to anticipate threats in time and counter them swiftly. We had a long interaction with officers at Pathankot airbase. They said they had no information that our airbase would be attacked. He received the information early morning, that too not from Punjab but from the Delhi airforce. If the government was serious and intelligence functioned properly, the picture would’ve been very different.Pradip Bhattacharya
He also appealed to the government to look into the security arrangements at the airbase.
Even today, there are very unsafe conditions at the Pathankot airbase. During visit to Pathankot airbase the committee found that security was not robust. We urge the government to take this report seriously and take appropriate steps.
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