‘Pathankot Airbase was poorly guarded’

NEW DELHI: An Indian parliamentary committee investigating the Pathankot Airbase terrorist attack has admitted that there was something wrong with their counter-terror security establishment and suggested that the Pathankot Airbase’s security cover was not robust and had a poorly guarded perimeter wall. 

The Indian Express reported on its webpage that it was surprised that armed men were able to penetrate what should have been a highly protected airbase. Had the central government been serious and the intelligence agencies functioned properly, the picture would have been entirely different, the panel said in the report presented to parliament. 

It is unable to understand how, despite a terror alert (having been) sounded well in advance, the terrorists managed to breach the high security airbase and subsequently attack it, the panel said. It asked the government to pay attention to effectively sealing the border (with Pakistan) through increased patrolling as well as fencing and floodlighting