Pathankot terror strike could have been prevented: J&K Governor

Pathankot terror strike could have been prevented if lessons were learnt from previous terror strikes with a main focus on securing country's international border with Pakistan which is not yet "well guarded", Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra said here on Tuesday.

Speaking about the recent infiltrations by terror groups through International Border (IB), including the recent attack on Pathankot air base, Vohra said BSF with its limited capacities cannot guard the borders which is a long stretch of over 200 to 250 kilometers including the Punjab IB.

The Governor who was here to deliver a key note address on seventh National Investigation Agency (NIA) day, noted that the five-six terror attacks which took place from September 2013 onwards via Kathua through the IB, part of which falls in Jammu and Kashmir, should have been followed up as closely as the Pathankot attack.

He said that the attack on Dina Nagar police station in Gurdaspur could have been avoided, if the previous terror attacks were subjected to a tight investigation.

"...And if Dinanagar would have been properly investigated, Pathankot, I am sure would have been almost impossible because we would have been able to know the routes taken by the terror groups to infiltrate the IB. I also hold very strongly that IB is not well guarded," Vohra, who has been the Governor of the border state for last eight years, said.

The Governor, who has also served as Union Home and Defence Secretary besides Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister in 1997, maintained that he had informed the centre about it.

"I think there are issues...But we need to do much more. BSF, with its present capacities, cannot safeguard IB which is long stretch of over 200 to 250 kilometres almost including the border in Punjab. It is a difficult area and we need to look at that," Vohra reiterated.

He was replying to a question over the reluctance of state governments in handing over terror cases to central probe agencies. Punjab government had refused to hand over the Dina Nagar police station attack probe to NIA.

The July 2015 terror attack on a police station in Dina Nagar in Gurdaspur district of Punjab resulted in 10 deaths, including that of three terrorists. Superintendent of Police Baljeet Singh was also killed in the attack.

Highlighting the sensational issue of sabotage of national security related decisions, Vohra said, "Considering the level of sabotage and subversion which have progressively got established in our country, in our systems, various actions and decisions taken with regard to national security, enforcement have the high potential of being sabotaged".

The Governor was posed a question by an NIA officer who claimed that the Malda riots in West Bengal were carried out by people with criminal intent who destroyed records of a police station so that when NIA takes over, there are no document and evidence to pursue the probe.

Vohra replied that he had seen such sabotage during his tenure in various capacities in Punjab, during post Blue Star period, and in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The point that you made about certain elements in the state system, whether among the public or the criminal elements or elements within the state police who would subvert the NIA's objectives--by burning records or doing things like that so that when it comes to prosecuting an offence, you don't have the wherewithal, you don't have the evidence.. This is bound to happen," he said.

Vohra also suggested that a separate Ministry should be carved out from the Home Ministry to deal with national security related incidents and a separate cadre of officials who are specially trained to handle these issues be raised to man the proposed ministry.

The Governor asserted that in the wake of terror attacks, standard operating procedures must be strictly followed.