The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Pathankot terrorist attack, is also investigating the role of some of the officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) in the attack. Officials involved in the investigation said that there was a very strong possibility that the terrorists were provided inside help, which came either from private individuals or officials with the armed forces.
According to the initial investigations, the six terrorists who were killed in the Pathankot attack, had come from Pakistan following which the Home Ministry asked the BSF to submit a report on the incident. “The BSF in its report has stated that it has not identified any breach in the border. It is yet to tell us how the terrorists managed to enter India. Obviously they did not use parachutes to enter Pathankot with more than 50 kg of luggage with them. The nexus between a section of corrupt BSF officers and the highly influential drug mafia in Punjab is no secret. The officers who were responsible for that particular border sector will be questioned to generate leads. There is a possibility that the terrorists may have been helped by the lower workforce of the BSF or maybe there was coordination between the terrorists, the drug mafia, the Punjab police and the BSF,” an NIA official said.
NIA is also investigating the role of some of the officials of the BSF in the attack. Officials involved in the investigation said that there was a very strong possibility that the terrorists were provided inside help.
Text messages sent to concerned senior BSF officials for their response did not elicit any response till the time the story went to press. “There is a strong possibility that some elements in BSF conspired with the Pakistani Rangers to allow these terrorists to sneak into the country. The terrorists may have crossed the border in the guise of narcotic smugglers, which was deliberately ignored by the BSF guards, and later the arms and ammunition used by the terrorists were given to them once they were inside the border,” the official said.
Last year the BSF had submitted a detailed report to the MHA on the drug problem in Punjab and stated that there was a well organised drug cartel in Punjab that was helping in the smuggling of drugs from Pakistan. The report had also pointed out the presence of couriers inside India who were facilitating the transfer and sell of these drugs. “This has become a profession now. I know families who have been acting as couriers for three decades now. It is a well organised profession where Indian smugglers use Pakistani SIM cards and Pakistanis use Indian SIM cards,” an official, who retired from the BSF and is settled in Chandigarh, said. “They (the BSF) were the first wall of defence and they failed miserably. Accountability needs to be fixed on those who are responsible for this,” a senior official with the MHA said.