The government on Tuesday announced that only four terrorists had entered the Pathankot Air Force station to carry out the strike that left eight people dead. This is contrary to a statement made by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on March 4 when he had said that charred remains, apart from four bodies of terrorists, were found at the debris after security forces searched the Pathankot airforce station when the operation ended.
We sought Rs 2,000 crore from government to revamp security infrastructure at bases and installations. But it is yet to give a single rupee: Armed forces. The armed forces will have to spend money on revamping security infrastructure from funds allocated in defence budget: Defence ministry.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base, security was on Saturday stepped up in the national capital and several states. Security has been beefed up at the airport, railway stations, bus stands and other vital installations.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the Ministry of Defence, saying that "we want to know your response" and listed the matter for hearing on February 3 next year.
Modi visited the border district in Jammu region, his first to Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, coinciding with Infantry Day celebrations.
Maulana Masood Azhar was allowed to preach extremist ideology at several British mosques during a month-long visit to UK in 1993 on the invitation of Islamist scholars
J&K Governor N N Vohra on Friday ordered a security audit of all vital establishments and installations in Jammu and Kashmir by a multi-disciplinary team of security agencies.
Intermittent blasts and exchange of fire to neutralise two more terrorists continued on Sunday night at Air Force Station in Pathankot, Punjab where four terrorists were killed, seven security men lost their lives and 17 persons were injured in the over 40-hour-long operation.
Noting that the Indo-Pak ties "remain tense", the US intelligence chief said India's engagement with Pakistan hinges on Islamabad's willingness to act against those responsible for the Pathankot terror attack.
"In an unprecedented move, the ministry of defence (MoD) has decided to delegate substantial financial powers to the Armed Forces for undertaking works for perimeter security of sensitive military installations," the ministry said in a statement.
The suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists dressed in army uniforms launched the attack with an aim of destroying the air base.
The Punjab government has refused to pay a bill of Rs 6.35 crore to the Center for deployment of paramilitary forces during and after the terror attack at Pathankot air force base.
Talk of a blackout by other news channels in solidarity remained inconclusive because of the heavy news agenda on that day.
Even as the anti-terror operations continue at the Pathankot Air Force base, the National Investigation Agency has started piecing together the puzzle over how the terrorists managed to sneak into the country and launch the brazen attack.
The external affairs minister, a JNU alumnus, condemned the attack on the university campus. He said it's completely against the culture and tradition of the university.
Former Director General of Sikkim Police Avinash Mohananey interrogated Azhar many a times during his two-decade tenure in the Intelligence Bureau.
For two decades after his release in exchange for passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999, Azhar has since been the darling of Pakistan's external snooping agency Inter-Services Intelligence.
The ceasefire violation comes after nearly seven months as last such incident took place on September 18, 2015 in the Balakote sector of Poonch district.
State capitals and major cities across the country have seen security being beefed up at vulnerable places and key installations.
The NIA on Tuesday summoned the caretaker of a shrine in Punjab which a superintendent of police rank officer had claimed to have visited before being kidnapped by terrorists who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base hours later.
The terrorists were armed with AK-47s, grenades, pistols, knives, many rounds of ammunition. Sepoy Jagdish Chand's weapons were his bare hands and enormous courage. He died, but not before he felled one of them. Archana Masih/Rediff.com speaks to the family of Sepoy Jagdish Chand, one of the 7 soldiers martyred in the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
The anti-terror probe agency's chief Sharad Kumar said help of Pakistan will be sought in solving the Pathankot terror attack case.
'My fear is that if Gurdaspur happened, and now Pathankot happened, then what if they go more inside Punjab... what if Jalandhar were to happen... then what happens...'
'There are retaliatory incursions, ambushes, captures and killings by Indian forces along the 700 km border; alleged spies are caught on both sides, then mutually traded as pawns; envoys are summoned in both capitals to be routinely given dressing downs.' 'And there is always a handy courier pigeon, like Sajjan Jindal, sent over to test the troubled waters,' says Sunil Sethi.
'Its internal economic rot and corrupt political elite have made the resurgent supremacy of the military establishment more invincible,' says Sunil Sethi.
'The Pathankot episode shows that the security forces handled the attack well after the initial setback, although there is no denying that there are shortcomings in India's security grid that need urgent correction,' says national security expert Nitin Gokhale, founder, BharatShakti.in
'If you destroy the assets in Pathankot, you degrade the combat potential of India; you degrade the war potential of India.'
India plans to provide the probe team from Pakistan access to all witnesses in the Pathankot terror attack case but not security personnel from the National Security Guard or the Border Security Force.
'It sounds hollow when the military -- the last bastion meant to secure India within the State of India -- is itself not found secure on the third day of the Pathankot strike, in spite of so-called definitive intelligence inputs and preparations,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait (retd), former chief of the Integrated Defence Staff.
'The message to India is (with attacks like Pathankot) basically what the Pakistani army is trying to test is how serious are you when it concerns the peace process with that country.'
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