Govt Has Learnt Nothing From Pathankot Attack: Parl Committee

Armed forces during the counter-terror operation at Pathankot. (Photo: The Quint)

A Parliamentary committee has come down heavily on the government for its alleged failure to prevent terror attacks on security installations, saying lessons have not been learnt from Pathankot attack and that there was something "seriously wrong" with the counter-terror establishment.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home in its report, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, took stock of overall performance of Ministry of Home Affairs.

Despite several steps reportedly taken by the government to strengthen security measures, it has "comprehensively failed" to prevent recurrence of such subsequent attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pampore, Uri, Baramula, Handwara and Nagrota, it said.

“The Committee observes that the government has not learnt any lesson from the Pathankot attack,” the panel noted, saying there remains an urgent need to further strengthen the security network and plug the “serious gaps” in security establishment and intelligence gathering/sharing that have come to the fore in the recent attacks.

The panel, headed by former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, expressed its inability to understand that "in spite of terror alert sounded well in advance, how terrorists managed to breach the high-security air base and subsequently attack."

Taking note of the intelligence input and kidnapping and subsequent release of Punjab Superintendent of Police and his friends, the Committee wondered whether the security agencies were "so ill-prepared to anticipate threats in time and counter them swiftly and decisively."

“The panel feels that something is seriously wrong with counter-terror security establishment as despite the fencing, floodlighting and patrolling by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, Pakistani terrorists managed to sneak into India from across the border,” it said.