Centre ‘gone soft’ on Punjab on Pathankot

The terror siege in Pathankot has put the spotlight on the BJP-Akali Dal combine in Punjab with questions being raised over whether the Narendra Modi government has “gone soft” on the state government because of electoral reasons. With terror making its first big comeback in Punjab in July last year, when a 12-hour long gun-battle ensued after Pakistan-based terrorists dressed in Army fatigues stormed the Dina nagar police station campus in Gurdaspur, killing seven persons including an SP, the Punjab government had refused to hand over the probe to the National Investigation Agency, despite Union home ministry’s orders.

The top security brass have trashed the Punjab government’s latest arguments that the Gurdaspur attack will only be probed by the Punjab police, calling it “worrisome and unsustainable” and setting a wrong trend for other states at a time when cross-border terror is making a comeback in the country.

However, Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has claimed that the Gurdaspur terror attack was directed at ‘’Punjab police personnel’’ and an installation of the state government(police station campus), hence the state police will continue to probe the case.

Since the recent Pathankot terror attack targeted the IAF base that was a Central government installation, the case has been handed over to the NIA.

“If all states start taking this stand, then terror probes will run directionless and the NIA will lose its mandate,” a top government official said.

A section in the security establishment are of the view that had the Gurdaspur case been probed by the NIA, the terror seige at the IAF base in Pathankot may have been averted.

In both Gurdaspur and the recent Pathankot terror siege that lasted over 50 hours, infiltration took place and security establishments were targeted ensuing in long gunbattles. Probe by a single agency can surely throw up coherent leads, a top official said.

Significantly, the Punjab government was allowed to have a free-run even as the Modi government invoked the NIA Act to suo motu transfer the 2014 Burdwan blast case to the NIA, despite West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to transfer the case.

All eyes are now on the Modi government to see if it will act tough and ask NIA to probe all the recent terror cases in Punjab like Dinanagar as terror attacks continue unabated in the state.

Notably, the NIA was created in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attacks to probe all terror-related cases in the country. Under the eight scheduled offences listed in the NIA Act, the Gurdaspur attack falls in the ambit of one of these offences.