Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH, January 7: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today said that the Pathankot operation in the wake of terror attack on the airbase there was completely botched up. “Even after the passage of seven days nobody is sure whether all the militants have been flushed out or not”, he remarked while pointing out, “we are as unsure and uncertain about the situation today as we were on the day one of the attack”.
“By bringing in the NSG, instead of the army which has better training and expertise in counter-insurgency, those at the helm may have certainly glamourised and romanticised the operation but they have also ended up with more loss of precious lives of our soldiers”, the former Punjab Chief Minister, who has also served ten years in the army and participated in 1965 war against Pakistan, said in a statement here today.
“Thanks to the total mishandling of the situation we have, by default, served the purpose of the perpetrators by allowing the operation to last unusually for a longer duration”, he observed while adding, “besides it got them prolonged media attention which is the main purpose of those who conceived and executed it”.
Capt Amarinder also disagreed with the GOC Western Command, Lt Gen KJ Singh that it was right to deploy the National Security Guard (NSG) to flush out the militants instead of regular army. He observed, the General appeared to be defending the government decision for the obvious reasons of being a disciplined soldier.
“Even former Chief of Army Staff General VP Malik and other retired generals have been on record saying that army could have handled the situation better”, he pointed out.
The former Chief Minister pointed out, the NSG commandos are effective where the targets are identified like hostages or hijacking or ‘holed up’ situations. “NSG has no experience in the counter-insurgency operations and that is the reason one of the elite commandos got killed even after killing one of the terrorists”, he said, adding that army is best trained and experienced in counter-insurgency operations as compared to the NSG.
He added that for last 25 years Indian army has been engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir with great success with minimum loss of life. “They have got training, experience and expertise and they would certainly have done a better job, in shorter duration and more likely with less loss of life”, he said, while pointing out, even after seven days, nobody is sure whether all the militants have been flushed out or not.
