Pathankot: Agency exposes police failure, chinks in airbase security

The NIA charge sheet in the Pathankot case exposed the chinks in the security ring inside the airbase.

The four terrorists who entered the airbase managed to remain undetected for 24 hours before the strike and even make phone calls to Pakistan.

It also hints at the failures of the police as the attackers managed to hoodwink them despite killing a driver and brutally injuring another, besides abducting a senior police officer who was later let off.

DNA samples

The charge sheet also mentions the evidence it collected through DNA samples, mobile phone call records and articles used by the terrorists to build a fool-proof case against the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists as well as their leaders, including outfit chief Masood Azhar.

After infiltrating into India on December 30, they reached the airbase on foot.  They “forced their entry” into the airbase by “cutting the wire fencing over the western side of the perimeter wall”.  Investigators also recovered a climbing rope, a glove and a woollen cap entangled in the fencing. Marks made while climbing over an eucalyptus tree near the wall were also spotted.

After getting to the airbase, the terrorists “hid themselves inside” a drainage and later at the “dilapidated” MES store sheds “till the time they launched the assault”.

Pakistani number

While inside, one of the terrorists, Nasir, tried calling a Pakistani number 923466746667 at 8.40 pm on January 1.  The phone belonged to a shopkeeper in Sialkot.

Forty minutes later, he called on 923000957212 and gave out the names of the terrorists.
He once again called on this number, during which he spoke to a woman whom he identified as “mother”.