The government is mulling a proposal to “thin out” pr-esence of BSF personnel on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and deploy them along the Int-ernational Border (IB) in Punjab and Jammu
The government is mulling a proposal to “thin out” pr-esence of BSF personnel on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and deploy them along the Int-ernational Border (IB) in Punjab and Jammu regions in the wake of the Pathan-kot airbase terrorist attack.
Officials said a proposal to de-induct at least four out of the dozen-odd battalions of the BSF from LoC has already been sent to the Union home ministry and a note for taking a final decision in this regard by the Cabinet committee on security will be prepared soon after deliberations with the ministry of defence and Army.
As many as six terrorists had stormed the Pathankot airbase on January 2, a forensic report submitted to the Union home ministry has established, putting a lid to the controversy over the number of terrorists who carried out the 48-hour long terror siege. While the National Security Guards (NSG), which led the counter-terror operation, maintained it killed six militants, the probe agency, the NIA, had claimed that four terrorists had been gunned down by the security forces and there was no conclusive evidence of involvement of more terrorists in the assault on the sensitive installation.
The fresh findings may force the NIA to revisit its findings so far as it had based its investigation on the involvement of only four terrorists, backing it with claims made by the prime witnesses in the case. The three prime witnesses — Punjab police officer Sal-winder Singh, his jeweller Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal — had told the NIA that four gunmen overpowered them around New Year’s eve. The gunmen snatched Mr Singh’s vehicle to reach the airbase.
With the fresh facts emerging, the local involvement in the case also cannot be ruled out by the NIA till the time the identity of the two terrorists is not established, the sources said.
