The ‘lost opportunity’ in Pathankot

Two who were hiding in airmen’s billet could have been caught alive.

Even as the debate on the number of terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase last month continues, the chief of the National Security Guard (NSG), which fought the intruders, told The Hindu that he was certain there were six terrorists inside. He said two terrorists hiding in the airmen’s billet, which was blown up, could have been caught alive had Lieutenant-Colonel Niranjan not died while handling the bodies of the four terrorists killed earlier.

In an interview, NSG Director-General R.C. Tayal said the ‘go-through’ sensors (a listening device) put on the wall of the airmen’s billet confirmed that at least two more terrorists were inside. Four had been neutralised by then. This was the third day of the operation. “You know why I say this? An NSG commando had placed the sensor on one of the walls on the ground floor of the billet. He heard a man saying in Punjabi accent: Abe uth, NSG waale aa gaye hain, hum khatam [wake up, NSG is here. We are finished]. We were certain after this that there were two inside,” Mr. Tayal said.

He said the two men were probably “loaders” who had accompanied the four terrorists killed earlier, as they had a large number of explosives and improvised explosive devices, and mostly threw grenades in defence. No AK-47, a weapon used by trained terrorists [also by the four men who were killed], was used by them.

We wanted to smoke out two ultras: NSG chief

The Director-General of the National Security Guard (NSG), R.C. Tayal, has said that two terrorists who were hiding in the airmen’s billet in the Pathankot airbase could most probably be “loaders” who had accompanied the four terrorists killed earlier in the operation.

Asked how “loaders” could recognise NSG commandos, Mr. Tayal said: “These men are given some basic training about the counter-terrorism forces and our black dungaree uniform is unique…”

“As soon as we placed the sensor [on one of the walls on the ground floor of the billet], a grenade was lobbed from inside. We presumed that one of the two terrorists was injured during the first few minutes as firing came from only one kind of weapon, which was a pistol. They did not use any other weapon like AK-47, but lobbed a lot of grenades. The man firing at us moved from one corner to another,” Mr. Tayal said.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, the presence of two terrorists in the billet was noticed on the third day of the operation as the door of the airmen’s billet was bolted from inside, and nobody answered it when the buildings were being sanitised. “We did not want to blow up the building; we wanted to catch them alive. They had been cornered in a room and we were all set to make room-intervention. But the news of [the death] Lt. Col. Niranjan arrived, and we decided to blow up the building, we did not want more casualties,” he said.