A board of inquiry, which was initiated by the Border Security Force (BSF) against two of its officers for their alleged lapses that led to the Pathankot Air Force base terror strike, has not come out with any findings, even after over nine months. The board has failed to fix accountability in the attack in which eight lives, including that of seven men from the security forces, were lost.
The two officers, Gurdaspur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) N.K. Tiwari and S.S. Dabas, the commandant of the 132nd Battalion deployed in the area, were transferred by the BSF on 18 January “pending inquiry”, over two weeks after the terrorists had entered the Air base on 2 January.
Indian security agencies that were investigating the attack, had raised questions on the role of the BSF and its top leadership after it emerged that the five heavily armed terrorists had managed to evade the BSF’s patrolling party and cross over into India before entering the Air base.
The attack, which had led to many questions being raised on India’s ability to protect its strategic installations, has also raised unpleasant questions about the BSF, with former BSF DG and security adviser E.N. Rammohan alleging that corrupt BSF officers, who were hand-in-glove with drug rackets active in Punjab had helped the Pakistani terrorists sneak into India.
Officers familiar with the development said that the board of inquiry was a “formality in progress”. “You can clearly see that the BSF is not serious about fixing any responsibility. It has been nine months and nothing has come out. It is just a formality in progress. Rather than taking this as an opportunity to set things right in the BSF, which is seeing increasing signs of incompetence, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), too, has chosen to turn a blind eye to it. The MHA should have taken strict action against the erring officers by fixing accountability on the person under whose watch the terrorists managed to sneak in, so that these things are not repeated in the future,” said a senior intelligence officer who had probed the attack.
Emails sent to the BSF Public Relations Officer seeking the status of the inquiry and whether any timeline has been set for it to be completed, elicited no response until the time the story went to press. Emails sent to Joint Secretary, Police-II, MHA, too, did not generate any response.
Intelligence officials said that the BSF did not face any shortage of equipment or resources, unlike what it claims. “There is no dearth of hand held thermal imagers and guns that the BSF needs to secure the border, but unless and until the corrupt and incompetent are identified, no amount of guns and other equipment will be of help,” said an official.