ALI SUKHANVER
Whatever happened there at the Pathankot Air Base is certainly the worst example of terrorism and this act of terrorism has been strongly condemned by everyone including Pakistan. It is the need of time that precautionary measures must be taken to avoid repeated occurrence of such incidents in future. But at the same time it is also an important requirement to trace and analyze the facts and reasons behind such type of incidents. A very notable fact regarding the Pathankot Episode is that the Indian authorities took more than four days in getting the Air Base free from the possession of the terrorists. World renowned defense analyst Rahul Bedi has very ironically commented upon the in-efficacy and inertness of the security troops deployed there at the Pathankot Air Base. He said in a recent article, ‘It took Indian authorities four days to put down a deadly attack on the Pathankot air force base near the Pakistani border which killed seven Indian soldiers and wounded another 22. The inept handling of the security operation can only be described as a debacle.’
Ajai Shukla Ajai Shukla, a prominent Indian journalist also expressed the same type of feelings over the incident in an analysis. He said, ‘National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s inept handling has transformed what should have been a short, intelligence-driven, counter-terrorist operation into something that increasingly seems like a debacle.’ In short the terrorists did whatever they wanted to do and on the other hand the security forces could do nothing but prolong the duration of the episode. This situation no doubt puts a very big question mark on the abilities and expertise of the security institutions of India. Unfortunately instead of taking the security institution to task, the Indian politicians, the hi-ups of the Indian government and some segments from the Indian media are wasting all their power and force in framing Pakistan behind the scene and in dragging Pakistan into the situation for nothing. The NDTV reported on 5th January 2016, ‘After 80 hours, the operations have been completed at the Pathankot Air Force Base which was attacked over the weekend by terrorists believed to be from Pakistan.’ The same day, The Hindu referred to the statement of Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar who said addressing the media, ‘The National Investigation Agency NIA has leads that some of the weapons used by the terrorists were of Pakistani-make.’ But at the same time there are analysts in India who are of the opinion that the operational blunders committed by Indian security forces during the November 2008 militant attack on Mumbai, in which 166 people died, were mindlessly repeated in Pathankot due to a lack of well defined procedures.
For the last many years the working abilities of the Indian soldiers, army officers and the policemen are being strongly criticized by the Indian public. Even the Indian media is replete with the news regarding moral bankruptcy and professional inabilities of the Indian security officials inside the country as well as in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. According to a report published in an Indian newspaper in the last week of December 2015, women’s safety in India has become a national debate following a series of violent rapes that received massive media coverage. The report says that earlier in December 2015, the country’s judicial system was in the spotlight after the Supreme Court ordered a man, who was among several people convicted of a violent rape on a moving bus in New Delhi in December 2012, to be released after he served time in a juvenile detention facility.
According to the Hindustan Times, three inebriated army men gang-raped a young girl of 14 who was traveling on the Howrah-Amritsar Express. She was a resident of Kolkata, boarded the Punjab-bound train at Howrah on Sunday 27th December but entered the coach reserved for army personnel by mistake. One of the soldiers forced her to drink alcohol and when she was completely drunk the two others raped her in the bath-room of the train. She was reported to have been rescued by the Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police when she was found unconscious at Madhupur in Jharkhand, social workers went to her aid and she allegedly identified her attackers from CCTV footage from the train. Different analysts are of the opinion that in India various laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) are introduced to crush the criminals and their activities in ‘disturbed areas’ but most of the time the officials belonging to the security forces exploit these laws for their personal gains and desires. If the government of India is serious in avoiding Pathankot like incidents, it will have to upgrade the professional skills of its army and at the same time it must do something to improve their moral character of its soldiers and military officers.