Defence Minister admits gaps in security as Pathankot op ends, 6 terrorists killed

NSG to take final call on calling off combing operations, says the Defence Minister.

Pathankot

: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said that six terrorists had been neutralised at the Pathankot Airbase and the combing operations were likely to end on Wednesday.

"In this operation, six terrorists have been neutralised," Parrikar said, adding, "Two of those bodies are burnt badly. Combing operations are still on and may continue till tomorrow."

The Defence Minister lauded the security personnel for containing the terrorists away from the site of critical assets inside the base. "Soldiers killed in the attack will get 'battle casualty status' and all its benefits," he said.

Parrikar also added that there had been compromise on security. "I see some gaps, that will be cleared after investigation. But I don't think we have made any compromise on security," the Defence Minister said.

"The material that has been recovered so far indicate that some of it is made in Pakistan," he added.

Earlier, an explosion was heard from the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot where combing operations were underway. The Indian Air Force later confirmed that it was a controlled demolition of recovered explosive material.

The operation against the terrorists at the air base entered its fourth day on Tuesday as security forces continued to carry out combing operations to smoke out any remaining terrorist.

Parrikar reached Pathankot on Tuesday to take stock of the current situation and he was accompanied by IAF chief Air Marshal Arup Raha and Army Chief General Dalbir Singh.

The three are scheduled to visit the strategic base, situated about 35 km from the border with Pakistan, in the afternoon to get a first hand assessment of the ground situation after six terrorists were killed by security forces.

The visit comes at a time when the government has ordered a security audit of all vital defence installations in the country to find out the possible security loopholes.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena slammed the Modi government, calling on Narendra Modi to stop trusting the Pakistani establishment.

Further hitting out at the government, the ruling alliance partner said, "The Prime Minister was in Lahore only last week as a guest of his counterpart Nawaz Sharif. At that time, we had warned him not to trust Pakistan."

"See how we have been betrayed today. If Pakistan wants to improve relations with India, they should immediately hand over Jaish-e-Mohammed's Maulana Masood Azhar to India," it said.

The Sena also said that had the Congress been in power today, there would have been demands to strike at Pakistan and avenge the deaths of soldiers, but now nothing is being done about the incident.

On Monday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered three cases to probe the entire conspiracy behind the strike at the IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab believed to have been carried out by Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The cases were initially registered by local police stations in Pathankot that were transferred and handed over to the NIA, a central probe agency that was set up after the audacious 26/11 Mumbai terror strike, to probe all terror cases in the country.

A 20-member team of NIA led by an Inspector General- ranking officer has been camping at Pathankot since January 2 to supervise the ongoing investigations.