I have fond memories of a day at the Pathankot airbase while waiting for the evening train for Delhi. The food at the officers’ mess was sumptuous and I had a good view of the river that flowed nearby. The whole of last week, the airbase was in my mind as six terrorists, allegedly from Pakistan, created mayhem there raising questions about our preparedness to face terrorist threats from across the border.

I remember an American journalist friend sending me his article done in the aftermath of 9/11 in which the twin-World Trade Centre towers in New York were brought down by ramming hijacked civilian aircraft into them. He pointed out several facts about the gory act to suggest that the hand of Providence worked in America's favour.

One, the tragedy would have been worse if the towers were hit one or two hours later -- there would have been a much larger number of people in the two buildings to fall prey to terrorism. If one of the planes had hit the Pentagon directly, there would have been a greater tragedy. It only scraped a corner of the building which houses the American defence establishment.

It is now well-known that one of the planes hijacked by the terrorists was to hit the White House. Some of the passengers are believed to have fought with the hijackers and they could not hit the target. Imagine the consequences if they were able to hit the President's house with or without the President in it.

Why I mentioned all this is to bring home the point that the hand of Providence played its role in Pathankot as well. Now imagine the worst scenario. It is apparent that the terrorists were heavily armed. If, suppose, they were able to reach the hangar where our fighter aircraft and helicopters are kept safe from prying eyes, they could have caused damages worth billions of rupees.

The airbase has 3,000 Indian Air Force employees, including hundreds of fighter pilots who are capable of flying all kinds of aircraft, including stealth and supersonic. Fortunately, nothing happened to the assets, physical or manual. Seen from this point of view, the terrorist operation was a total failure.

They have nothing to show off, except the lives of seven, including that of a Lieutenant-Colonel. For that they need not have entered the high-security airbase. However, we cannot dismiss the attack as if it was of no consequence. In fact, it showed several chinks in India's security system.

Some of the comments I make may not be palatable to those in authority. It is not because I am less patriotic. I would rather earn the stigma of a non-patriot than remain a mute commentator who does not see evil, speak evil or hear evil like the three monkeys made famous by Mahatma Gandhi.

Let's start from the beginning. On the night of December 31, the official car of the Superintendent of Police of Gurdaspur, Salwinder Singh, was hijacked by the "Pakistani" terrorists. At that time the police officer was accompanied by a jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and his cook Madan Gopal. The incident occurred near the India-Pakistan border.

Now the question is why did they go to the border area and that, too, at night? It was not an official visit. It is claimed that they went there to visit a temple. Since when has SP-rank officers started visiting temples at night and in wanton misuse of their official cars? Is it not curious that the terrorists did not kidnap the SP and use him to bargain with the authorities? He could have been an excellent trophy for them. It is claimed that they could not recognise the SP. Surely, they were not fools sent on a foolish mission. The question remains, why was the SP let off?

It is now well-established that the terrorists travelled in the official car of the SP which has a blue beacon light for about 30 km to reach Pathankot. They would surely have received salutes from the policemen on duty at traffic signals on the way. The car was later found abandoned very close to the airbase.

The SP's conduct does not seem to inspire confidence. It is obvious that he had gone to the border for some nefarious activity. Narcotic smuggling is common in the area and many police officers are involved in it.

I have in these columns highlighted the strange story of an IPS officer from Kerala Saji Mohan who is now in a jail in Mumbai, having been convicted in a case of narcotic smuggling. I have read his case history which threw light on the modus operandi of narcotic traders who operate across the border.

A thorough interrogation of the SP would reveal why he became so religious that he felt the need to go to a temple near the border at night. He should also be able to explain why he did not take his gunman with him? Also, he should explain whether he offered any resistance to the terrorists when they captured his vehicle? His statement that a blue-blooded Punjabi like him could not follow their Urdu is unbelievable. Punjabis can certainly follow the gist of a conversation in Urdu.

Surely, his conduct was suspicious. The statement by the temple authorities that he was accompanied by some Urdu-speaking people makes the suspicion stronger.

Be that as it may, the SP was the first to report that his car was hijacked by the terrorists. What action was taken to intercept them? Was any attempt made to beef up security at the airbase? There are no answers to these questions, at least in the public domain. What is clear is that the terrorists were able to enter the airbase without much difficulty.

I believe the claim that they belonged to a particular terrorist organisation, linked to the one who was released from an Indian jail and was escorted to Afghanistan by an Indian minister during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime. But I am not convinced that they are Pakistani citizens, particularly in the light of claims that the border was not breached.

Ideally, the government should have by now identified them by publishing their pictures. They are certainly the sons of some parents or husbands of some wives and parents of some children who will come forward to identify them. This is also necessary to strengthen our belief that they were sent from Pakistan. It will make our claim against Pakistan stronger.

While the terrorists could not damage any aircraft or helicopters, the fact remains that they could kill seven people, including Lt.-Col Niranjan Kumar. This is certainly a big loss. Any Indian citizen getting killed while undertaking his duty is a big loss for the nation. Human life is invaluable and no compensation can match it. It is in this context that I would like to raise some questions about his death.

He was an expert in defusing bombs and other explosives. He was killed when a hand grenade in the pocket of a terrorist exploded accidentally. How did it happen? There are two versions. One version has it that his body was dragged and the grenade exploded while being dragged. The other version is that after the dragging, his body was turned with his face down and the grenade exploded when pressure was exerted on it.

Kumar was killed and many others were injured. Was he not wearing bullet-proof jackets and trousers? Did he follow the standard protocol while handling the body? Terrorists are known to attach explosive devices to their body so that they are not caught alive. After all, they take up an assignment not to live but to die. Surely, if safety precautions were taken, the death and destruction could have been averted. True, he died for the country.

The Kerala government's decision to give his family Rs 50 lakh, a government job to his widow and free educational facilities to his child is in the right direction. His funeral was attended by Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala. But no Central minister deemed it necessary to attend the ceremony either at Pathankot from where his body was despatched or Palakkad in Kerala where it was received. So much for the nationalism of some ultra-nationalists!

Former defence minister AK Antony, whom the BJP leaders used to attack as an indecisive minister who could not stand up to the Pakistanis, have rightly asked Prime Minister Modi to explain how Pathankot happened soon after his visit to Pakistan. He was certainly within his rights to ask such a question.

It is claimed that Indian intelligence authorities have the transcripts of the conversation the terrorists had with their Pakistani handlers. That is excellent evidence. However, the question is why the authorities could not locate them and arrest or kill them before they could strike. Intelligence is useless if the state is unable to act on it.

One only has to remember Kargil to know how costly it would be to ignore intelligence. The local people had reported the presence of Pakistanis after the Indians had vacated the posts before the onset of winter. No action was taken until the Pakistanis took positions at the Kargil heights that gave them a panoramic view of the Kargil-Leh road. Precious lives had to be spent to force them out of the heights which, eventually, happened when the then US President Bill Clinton made a strong appeal to the Pakistan government.

We rightly blame Pakistan for the Mumbai attack. It was planned in Pakistan and executed by Pakistanis in India. We were even able to identify all those who took part in the attack. But we forget the fact that they could land in Mumbai without passports and visas only because the Indian Coastguards, the Indian Navy, the Indian Customs, the Gujarat Police, the Maharashtra police and sundry other authorities failed to intercept them. No heads are learnt to have rolled in these organisations.

In the case of Pathankot we do not even know the identity of the six terrorists. It is claimed that they wore a particular Pakistani brand of shoes. The first time I went to the US, I bought two T-shirts for my sons. It was only after I brought them home that I realised that the shirts were "Made in Pakistan". We need to identify them with better evidences.

Journalists were allowed to visit the Pathankot airbase and see for themselves the mayhem the terrorists created. They could even see their bodies but the authorities had ensured that they did not carry any mobile phone or camera to shoot their pictures. Why this hesitation in showing the faces of the slain terrorists?

Modi's personalised diplomacy under which he made a surprise visit to Pakistan to wish Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday would not have been to the liking of many on both sides of the border. They would not like India and Pakistan coming closer on any issue. In fact, they would like the two nations to remain perpetually on the verge of a war. India's decision to go slow on strengthening diplomatic contacts with Pakistan proves that such forces have succeeded to some extent.

It is the second time in less than a year that Punjab was chosen by the terrorists to strike. The question is have we learnt the lessons. This time the terrorist failed in their mission to cause damage to the airbase. Terrorists need not succeed in all their missions. On the contrary, the Indian state cannot afford to lose even once. It has to remain alert and capable of foiling all attempts made by the terrorists.

At the same time, we should not miss opportunities to strengthen bilateral relations which will eventually pave the way for abiding peace in South Asia. Terrorists should not be allowed to dictate terms. Modi would do well to remember how he would have reacted if Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister were to make a surprise visit to Pakistan to wish Nawaz Sharif on his birthday and the visit was followed immediately by the Pathankot attack. I leave it to my readers to answer this question.

The writer can be reached at ajphilip@gmail.com

(Published on 11th January 2016, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2)#