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Jihadis took orders from Pak handlers

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Pathankot: Just a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dramatic touchdown in Lahore, Pakistani terrorists attacked the strategically vital air force base here on Saturday morning, highlighting the challenge and costs involved in the attempt to restore normalcy with the hostile neighbour The pre-dawn fidayeen raid by terrorists belonging to the Jaish-e-Muhammed led by Maulana Masood Azhar, seeking to enter the strategically crucial forward operating base – located barely 40km from the Indo-Pak border and at the strategic tri-junction of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh – is home to a squadron of Mig-21 fighters and MI-25 and MI-35 attack helicopters. According to PTI reports, four MI-25 copters gifted by India to Afghanistan were from this base. The jihadis were asked by their handlers to specially destroy the aircraft and choppers. “Choppers aur planes ko uda do (blow up the planes and choppers),” said one of the calls from the handlers intercepted by intel agencies.At least five terrorists, one of them identified as Nasir Khan, were killed in an exchange of fire with commandos of the National Security Guards and Indian Air Force (IAF). Three security personnel, including one Air Force commando, were also killed in the operation, involving the use of attack helicopters, that started around 3.30am on Saturday and lasted about 17 tense hours, but the cantonment town, teeming with members of armed forces, was spared a big atrocity because of advance intelligence. A possible hostage crisis was averted by the timely action. Two of the slain defence personnel belonged to Gurdaspur.The slain Punjabi-speaking terrorists, part of a Jaish group based in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur, were taking instructions from their handlers Maulana Ashfaq and Haji Abdul Shaqur. The two owe their allegiance to Maulana Azhar, an old tormentor of India, who along with other Jaish terrorists had to be freed to secure the release of passengers on board the Indian Airlines plane which was hijacked in 1999 with the help of ISI Actionable inputs by intelligence agencies, including RAW, that jihadis were on the lookout for a spectacular attack on military targets, together with alarm sounded after they hijacked the vehicle of the Gurdaspur SP, had led the Centre to rush NSG commandos and ramp up security measures at the airbase stretched over 1600 acres.While the terrorists did not succeed in entering the “technical area” where fighter aircraft and choppers – high-value assets in military parlance – were parked, their audacity underscored the need for caution in dealing with Pakistan. The latest attempt at peace by the governments in two countries is supposed to enjoy the support of the Pakistan army, the de facto centre of power, especially when it comes to the policy towards India and this immediately raised the question of whether the terrorists who struck at Pathankot had the support of the notorious Pak army-ISI nexus.Jaish’s own equations with the Pakistan army and ISI have waxed and waned over the years. It was one of the tools of Islambad’s proxy war against India, and this was best evident when Azhar after his release was allowed to operate with impunity. Pakistan has baulked at executing Omar Sheikh, another terrorist belonging to the Deobandi group, who killed American journalist Daniel Pearl. However, it lost its status as ISI’s chief arm to Lashkar. Equations further deteriorated after two failed assassination efforts on Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf were traced to Jaish. Lately, however, it seemed to be creeping back into reckoning.Though it is difficult for the Indian government to immediately assess the complicity of Pakistan’s state actors in the attack, there were clear signs that the terror attack had once again underlined the political risks involved in the peace process and that the government would be pursuing the efforts even more cautiously. The sheer symbolism of a single damaged plane or chopper would have set PM Narendra Modi and BJP back severely.The terrorists are believed to have entered India on Thursday night almost through the same route which the Gurdaspur attackers used in July last year: something which again highlighted the vulnerability of the region, especially during the winters when the passes in J&K freeze. They used a local taxi ordered by their handlers in Pakistan to travel some distance. They forced the driver to keep on moving even after one of the tyres had burst and killed him once the Innova taxi, with its rim damaged badly, could not carry on.The gang then commandeered the vehicle of Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh, who was travelling with two companions. They let the officer, who was in his civvies, go and abandoned the SUV about two kilometres from the air force station from where the terrorists are believed to have walked to their target. The alarm raised by Singh about the presence of a group carrying AK- 47s tied in with the intercepts that intelligence agencies already possessed about the “high probability” of a terror attack on military installations in the region, leading to the deployment of NSG commandos and shoring up of security measures.Senior Punjab police officials had alerted the air force station and other defence installations by Friday afternoon. However, the well-trained and highly motivated Jaish fidayeen who fired mortal shells to force their way into the base, managed to scale the high walls of the outer perimeter of the air force station and engage the soldiers.The attack on the massive campus of the station which has residential complexes of the defence staff raised fears of a hostage crisis but the NSG commandos and others kept them contained in one corner with the help of attack helicopters constantly firing at them. After the attackers were killed, the sanitising operation with assault choppers and searchlights went on till midnight amid fears that there were more terrorists holed up in the bushes around the base.An official statement from the IAF said the terrorists were detected by aerial surveillance platforms as soon as they entered the station. The infiltrators were immediately engaged and contained within a limited area, “thus preventing them from entering the technical zone where high value assets are parked”. “Through timely and prompt action by all agencies, the likely plan of the terrorists to destroy valuable assets of the Air Force has been foiled,” the statement said.Like the attack on the Dinanagar police station in July, the fidayeens came heavily armed with the latest weapons. “This time they had mortar shells that are usually fired by troops across the border,” said Punjab Police additional director general of police (ADGP) law and order Hardeep Dhillon, who supervised the operation. Throughout the operation, both Dhillon and Punjab Police chief Suresh Arora, remained in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) room alongside Western Command chief Air Marshal S B Deo.