Categories: EspionageTerrorism

Honey-trapped spy and five crucial aspects of Pathankot attack

Published by

New Delhi

We list five vital aspects of the terror attack at the Pathankot India Air Force base in which five terrorists of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and three IAF men were killed in a day-long operation on Saturday.

  1. The IAF maintenance personnel Ranjit KK who was arrested from the Bhatinda air base, 259 km from Pathankot, is believed to have provided vital inputs to the ISI about the movements of aircrafts and their locations at the two air bases. Ranjit was arrested for spying for the ISI and passing on information to a woman McNaught Damini in a case of ‘honey trap’. Ranjit, who was posted as a maintenance officer at the Bhatinda air base, is understood to have told his interrogators in the police that he supplied crucial information about locations of strategic assets at the Pathankot and Bhatinda air bases to the woman.

  2. Though Pakistan civilian government has condemned the attack on the Pathankot air base, initial information shows that the country’s rogue intelligence establishment, Inter Service Intelligence, was behind plotting the attack with the aim of blowing up the base. Reports said that determined to keep the terror pot boiling despite resumption of dialogue between the civilian governments of India and Pakistan, the ISI convened a meeting of terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen last month at an undisclosed location in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The ISI is understood to have asked the terror groups to carry out major strikes at strategic locations in India. Pathankot terror attack was planned there, according to intelligence reports.

  3. Intelligence reports suggest that Jaish-e-Mohammad organised the Pathankot attack and assigned the task to six men who were trained at a camp in Bahawalpur. JeM was also responsible for the December 13, 2001, attack on Indian Parliament. The JeM is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the USA, but it continues to flourish in Pakistan.

  4. The JEM has been reduced to a marginal terror outfit operating from Pakistan, which led to drying up of its funding and induction of fresh recruits. The JEM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who operates from Bahawalpur in Punjab province of Pakistan, was desperate to get the focus back on him at a time when Hafez Sayeed is seen as the kingpin of all the terror groups in Pakistan. Azhar has been a long-time India hater. He was arrested in 1994 when he sneaked into Kashmir to unite Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits operating in the Srinagar valley. He was arrested in 1995 and kept in a high-security prison in Jammu. Pakistani terrorists hijacked an Indian Airlines flight at Kathmandu airport on December 24, 1999 and forced the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to release Masood Azar along with two others.

  5. This time, Indian intelligence network was able to sniff the terror plot well in advance. For the past several days, there have been media reports (based on intelligence inputs) of a possible terror attack. More specifically, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval told security establishment about an impending attack on Friday evening and asked them to be on high alert. The Air Force dispatched Western Air Command chief Air Marshal SB Deo to Pathankot air base on Friday night itself.

Team PGurus

We are a team of focused individuals with expertise in at least one of the following fields viz. Journalism, Technology, Economics, Politics, Sports & Business. We are factual, accurate and unbiased.

Recent Posts

MHA extends AFSPA in parts of Arunachal and Nagaland for 6 months

MHA took the step following a review of the law-and-order situation in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh…

4 hours ago

Controversial police officer Sanjiv Bhatt convicted for 20 years for planting narcotics to arrest an Advocate in 1996

In a second conviction, sacked IPS Sanjiv Bhatt was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for…

7 hours ago

Drugs Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) – Deriving political capital from illicit trafficking

Stranglehold of drug traffickers on political systems and their links to the entertainment industry An…

8 hours ago

Denied ticket, Erode MP Ganeshamurthi attempted suicide, and dies

Erode MP A Ganeshamurthi, who consumed poison tablets over denial of ticket, passes away at…

9 hours ago

Uttarakhand: Nanakmatta Gurudwara Kar Sewa Pramukh shot dead; probe underway

Dera chief of Uttarakhand's Nanakmatta Sahib Gurdwara shot dead, had claimed threat to life Nanakmatta Gurudwara…

12 hours ago

This website uses cookies.