Mercifully, the Pathankot operation against the terrorists is over. Unfortunately, the damage in terms of human lives lost is colossal. The six terrorists managed to snuff out seven lives of our valuable security personnel. There is little disagreement that since they managed to infiltrate one of the front line air bases of the country they could have caused even more damage, especially to the IAF’s vital assets like aircraft, helicopters and missiles.
Had they entered the residential area, they could have killed some of our highly trained and valuable fighter pilots and ground staff. But, as in the case of the Dinanagar terrorist attack in July last year, this too would vanish from media radars in the next few days. However, the incident will leave behind some uncomfortable and nagging questions that beg answers, lest there is yet another repeat of such an operation in future.