They are covered with steel doors."Asked when it received the first alert about terrorists, he 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. The final body was recovered from inside of this structure," said Lieutenant General Kamal Jit Singh at the Western Command Headquarters. Had there been any damage to the airport, in that situation how could we have brought NSG here," he asked."Asked how militants entered the air force base station and what time they entered, Lieutenant General said, "an inquiry has been ordered by airforce and NIA is investigating the case.On why NSG was brought in for this operation, Lieutenant General said, "NSG was brought in because firstly strategic assets were over here.To a question about the source of the alerts, Lieutenant General Singh said, "we got alert from Punjab police also and from central agencies.We had to localise them (terrorists) to a very small area and finally eliminated them. Some parts of bodies were scattered around there which are being forensically examined.
It is easy to reach here."There was NSG, Air force, Garud commandos.""We had initially report of 4-6 militants and then we made contact with six of them and all of them were eliminated," he said. It took time.When asked whether army started any combing operation between the period of getting first alert and attack by terrorists, he said, "combing of those areas was the primary the responsibility of police. NIA will look into it. We also follow a principle of calibrated use of force."Asked why terrorists struck at the air force base, Lieutenant General said, "It is strategically important.To a question on militant bodies, he said, "There are four bodies of militants.. Application of NSG was a joint decision taken at an appropriate level which included service chiefs," said Lieutenant General Kamaljit Singh, GoC-in-C, army's Western Command, told a media briefing in Chandi Mandir on Wednesday."They were brought out by army columns, NSG officials.
The other four bodies which are recovered a call will be taken whether to destroy them or not because they were carrying explosives.Lieutenant General further said that it was the success of this operation that Air force was station operational.There has been criticism of the decision to deploy the NSG personnel flown from Delhi on Saturday morning in the air force base in Pathankot when a larger number of army commandos were available in nearby garrison in the border city itself Army's special forces commandos were said to be better equipped to deal with the siege of the base.".On reports about Punjab police's lapse in Pathankot terror attack, he said, "I will not comment on it. They (the families) had to be evacuated first and we had to avoid hostage situation because of that it took time.Asked whether there could be any local support to terrorists, Lieutenant General said, "Some localised support cannot be absolutely ruled out.. It will all be looked into. "
The buildings in the air force base station are such that which are located close to family quarters. Police and army were looking into it. We took calculated risk so as not to have unnecessary casualties," he said. Area was checked out and QRT was in place. We have too much firepower which cannot be used in this operation because there were family quarters and civilian pockets outside the air force base. We were under instructions and it was our concept to avoid unnecessary casualties. All aspects of this case will be looked into it.Throwing light on the use of fire to eliminate the terrorists, Lieutenant General Singh said "excessive" firepower was not used because of the presence of families in the quarters and civilians pockets in the area. Two have been cooked up.He said they also wanted to avoid a hostage situation as a large number of families and foreign trainees were residing inside the base. They were brought down from the windows," he said to a question how two of militants were eliminated. It is only 25 km from the area.""I also want to tell you that within these barracks, which are MES constructions. People were living inside the campus which could have taken hostage.Chandi Mandir: The army dismissed criticism over deployment of National Security Guard (NSG) over army in a predominant manner in the counter-terror operation in the Pathankot air base, saying it was a "joint decision" and that the army was fully involved in it. The final group of two terrorists was in a two-storeyed structure where in the first our own troops were there.."On asked about potential hostage situation when terrorists attacked Pathankot air force base station, he said, "It could have developed into a hostage situation. It is like sitting inside a bunker inside a building and so terrorists took advantage of it. Secondly it is in the vicinity. We had to ensure security to our strategic assets."There are strategic assets here and there can be hostage situations as there are 11,000 people live here and 3,000 families, and above all, foreign trainees and had there been any hostage situation, it is NSG body which is specially trained to rescue them," he said. Secondly there can be hostage situation. It is a subject matter of inquiry. In any case, all along the operation, there was a great possibility of taking a hostage situation because there are air men living in those barracks / residential area.. "The basic concept is to safeguard the strategic assets. Every day there are two or three cases of such information it is being checked out. This is why we used that much fire power low power consumption solenoid valve which was required in that condition. Air force also carried out searching for terrorists," he said."Asked about the cordoning off of Tibri in Gurdaspur, he said, "There is some information.Lieutenant General Singh said terrorists holed up in buildings in the air force station took "advantage" of it which took time in eliminating them."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..""For that we had to take even risks.NSG are special troops (to handle such situation). Imagine the kind of publicity you can gain that you have targeted strategic air base.
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