Badal's contention of sharing crucial lead raises question mark on Centre for losing precious time in locating terrorists who were finally found lurking inside the Pathankot airbase at 3:00 am on January 2 with the help of plane mounted thermal image cameras.
Trying to take the blame off from the Punjab Police for Pathankot attack, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday asserted that the state police had alerted all the central agencies including the Military Intelligence (MI) about the impending terrorist attack at 7:30 morning on January 1.
"How can anybody blame Punjab of laxity when within four hours of terrorists' abandoning Gurdaspur SP and his co-passenger, the Punjab Police alerted all the central agencies of an impending terror attack at 7:30 am," said junior Badal adding that if Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh was not taken seriously, the police would not have seized vehicle abandoned by the terrorists at 3:30 am.
Badal's contention of sharing crucial lead raises question mark on Centre for losing precious time in locating terrorists who were finally found lurking inside the Pathankot airbase at 3:00 am on January 2 with the help of plane mounted thermal image cameras.
It has also put a question mark on the efficacy of Punjab Police which could not check movement of the terrorists for almost full 20-24 hours and allowed them to go till the airbase despite having solid lead on their movement.
A senior NIA officer also wondered how despite being seen with full proof the terrorists could roam about undetected for full 24 hours until they were spotted inside the airbase and challenged.
In Delhi to brief union home minister Rajnath Singh about the Pathankot terror attack, Badal said he has asked the home minister to sanction more BSF battalion to guard the large intermittent gaps between border outposts along the Pakistan border.
He, however, indicated that the BSF role should also be probed into the incident as a couple of BSF personnel were caught in Punjab on Thursday on charges of having nexus with drug peddlers from Pakistan.
Investigators who are looking into the case are strongly suspecting that the first group comprising two terrorists had managed t enter the airbase around noon on January 1 itself and remained undetected for the entire day.
They are also looking into the possibility that the group of four terrorists may have also joined the first one much before the agencies could point out that they could be heading towards the airbase.
"We are not ruling out a foul play and an insider's job. Many things and people involved and related to the incident are unexplained and under suspicion," said a source.
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