The Border Security Force (BSF), which had come under fire for the alleged lapses on the part of some of its officials after the Pathankot terror attack of January 2016, has declined to divulge what kind of action, if any, was taken against its officials for the security lapses. The Jaish-e-Mohammad sponsored terror attack had taken place on an Indian Air force base in Pathankot in which seven security personnel were killed.
The role of some of the BSF officials posted in the region had come into focus for failing to notice and stop the breach at the highly secure international border, after which at least four attackers were successfully able to enter the Air Force base.
The BSF declined to share any information, while replying to an RTI application filed by The Sunday Guardian, on whether any probe was ordered by the BSF on the lapses that led to the terror attack on the Pathankot base, whether any board of inquiry was constituted to probe the lapse and fix accountability for the lapses, and whether any action has been taken against any official based on the finding of the probe/board of inquiry recommendations. The BSF merely stated that “the information sought by you is of highly sensitive nature and is directly related to national security and therefore the information cannot be provided”.
Official sources, however, said that the BSF had constituted a board of inquiry against two of its officers deployed in the area, the then Gurdaspur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) N.K. Tiwari and S.S. Dabas, the commandant of the 132nd Battalion. Both of them were transferred by the BSF on 18 January 2016 “pending inquiry”, two weeks after the terrorists entered the air base on 2 January 2016. The transfer, according to BSF sources, was done to lessen the heat the organisation was facing at that time and according to sources, the BSF did not have the intention of fixing any responsibility for the lapses.
Shubhendu Bhardwaj, spokesman of BSF, said that no inquiry was instituted against any officer for the Pathankot attack and it was a “common misunderstanding” that two of BSF officials were transferred.