Pathankot: In an attempt to unravel how the Pathankot attack was carried out, the NIA on Wednesday quizzed the SP rank officer who was allegedly abducted by the terrorists, recreated the scene of his abduction and visited the border village from where the perpetrators were believed to have sneaked into India
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team took Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh to the place near Kolian village from where he was allegedly abducted in his car along with two others.
Following this, the team took him to the spot where he was dumped by the terrorists and his car was found abandoned.
The NIA questioned the SP at his residence in Gurdaspur on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday.
Rajesh Verma, his jeweler friend and cook Madan Gopal were also questioned.
The police superintendent, who was transferred from Gurdaspur district only last week, had claimed that he, along with Verma and the cook, were stopped and abducted by 4-5 heavily armed terrorists near Kolia village, 25 km from Pathankot, on the night of December 31.
The police officer has said his car was stopped around 12.30 a.m. (December 31 night), while the attack began early on Saturday (January 2).
He claimed that his senior officers did not take his information on presence of the terrorists seriously initially.
More men to be deployed on the border
The BSF will be deploying around 2,000 additional personnel along the Punjab and Jammu borders in order to plug unfenced riverine and forest gaps even as it submitted a fresh report to the government today stating there was no evidence of infiltration along the IB in the wake of the terrorist attack on the IAF base.
Officials said that the Border Security Force submitted a report to the Union Home Ministry after force Director General DK Pathak undertook a forward area tour along the International Border (IB) yesterday, including at Bamiyal, a border village in Pathankot, which is believed to have been used by terrorists to infiltrate into the country and attack the air base.
Pathankot operation a complete success says Army
The Army today made a statement that an inquiry had been ordered by Air Force and NIA was investigating the case as to how militants entered the station and what time they entered.
On being questioned asto when the Army received the first alert about the terrorists, Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh said, “we got information on January one during afternoon.”
“In this case it was a serious alert as we were told that 6-8 (terrorists were there),” he said.
To a question about the source of the alerts, Lt Gen Singh said, “we got alert from Punjab police also and from central agencies.”
However, he said the alert issued by Punjab police on December 30, was very general which said that 15 militants had entered into the Indian territory.
Questioned on why terrorists struck at the air force base, Lt Gen said, “it is strategically important. Imagine the kind of publicity you can gain that you have targeted strategic air base. Secondly it is in the vicinity. It is easy to reach here. It is only 25 km from the area.”
To a question on militant bodies, he said, “There are four bodies of militants. Two have been cooked up. Some parts of bodies were scattered around there which are being forensically examined. The other four bodies which are recovered a call will be taken whether to destroy them or not because they were carrying explosives.”
Lt Gen then claimed that the operation launched against the terrorists was a “complete success” which saw “synergy” between the NSG, Army and Air Force.
