New Delhi, Feb. 19: The commander of the Indian Air Force's Pathankot station that was attacked by militants from Pakistan last month has been "posted out" even as the government is resolving a new row over the number of attackers killed in the firefights.
Pakistani authorities in official correspondence today said India's national security adviser, Ajit Doval, had informed Islamabad that "on January 02 2016 four persons entered the premises of Pathankot Airbase, India, and resorted to heavy firing resulting in the death of 07 personnel".
There are now starkly different versions on the number of terrorists who attacked the air base in heavily militarised Pathankot.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh had put the number at five before withdrawing his tweet on the night of January 3. Official sources have so far said that six terrorists were killed, a figure put out by defence minister Manohar Parrikar in a television interview broadcast yesterday.
Sources in the National Investigation Agency have said that while the bodies of four had been found, the remains of the other two had not.
Army, air force and NSG sources have said two of the six terrorists were "neutralised" by firing the cannon of a BMP II armoured personnel carrier into an airmen's billet. But their clothes, weapons or human remains have not been traced so far.
Why the NSA should quote a figure of four when the official figure is six killed is yet to be explained. There is some suspicion that it can be explained if there is evidence to show that there was an inside hand in the attack.
The figure the Pakistani ministry of interior has attributed to NSA Ajit Doval is unambiguous. But the official figure of four killed was put out on the evening of January 2. Yet on January 3, Union home secretary Rajiv Mehershi and the IAF had officially said an exchange of fire was continuing with at least two attackers after four had been killed the previous evening.
Not till January 4 evening did the authorities confirm the killing of two more attackers, taking the number to six.
Now, a month and a half later, after Pakistan's Punjab police claimed it had filed an FIR against unknown persons based on Doval's correspondence, there is still no certainty on the number of militants who killed seven Indian soldiers, including an officer.
Pakistan newspaper Dawn reported on its website this afternoon that on the instructions from the ministry of interior,Punjab police had registered the FIR at its counter terrorism department police station in Gujranwala near Lahore.
India expressed disappointment that neither terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed nor its chief Masood Azhar were named in the FIR. "It is a small step in the right direction. But it is disappointing that neither the name of Jaish nor Masood Azhar was incorporated in the FIR," a senior government official said.
In New Delhi, air force sources said Air Commodore J.S. Dhamoon had been given routine orders for a new posting because he had completed his term as station commander. Dhamoon has served over a year. The term usually lasts between 18 and 24 months. The sources refused to describe his posting out as a removal from command.
But air headquarters was examining a report of the court of inquiry instituted by the IAF into the attack.
In the interview to India Today TV yesterday, defence minister Manohar Parrikar admitted there were gaps in the security of the Pathankot air base. He has ordered a security audit of all military establishments.
