Pathankot attack: How ‘Operation Dhangu’ was won

The Army on Wednesday justified the deployment of NSG in the operation against the six fidayeen at the Pathankot airbase saying that the three service chiefs had taken the call jointly so that the elite combat force could deal with any hostage crisis in the airbase which had around 3,000 family members of IAF personnel and 23 trainees from four foreign countries at the time of the attack.

Critics have questioned why NSG commandos were flown in from Delhi on January 2 when a large number of Army commandos were available in the border city itself.

Commander of the Army’s Western Command Lt Gen K J Singh said the NSG was deployed as it is a force specially trained to deal with a hostage crisis. Apart from family members, 23 trainees from Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Myanmar were at the airbase when fidayeen struck.

Singh said the strategic forward airbase of the IAF at Pathankot remained fully functional all through the `Operation Dhangu’, the codename given to the mission to eliminate the terrorists.

IAF planes carried out routine sorties in the border areas for surveillance, communication and reconnaissance, he added. Dhangu is the name of the village where the airbase has been established.

“Their purpose (of the at tack) was to keep the strategic airbase out of action or to destroy its high value assets but they could not succeed in any of their motives. We have not only saved our high-value assets of airbase but it also continued to function and carry out sorties as was done in normal days,” said Lt Gen Singh who led the army troops in the operation.

He said the operation went on for three days because the area was difficult and close to the family quarters of IAF personnel. Security personnel did not want collateral damage at the Air Force station, he added. Calibrated use of minimum firepower was done to avoid unnecessary causalities and to save strategic assets of the airbase.

The terrorists remained dormant for an average 8-10 hours and the troops had to wait to fire upon them.

On January 3, when two terrorists had entered the barracks inside the airbase, six IAF personnel were stuck on the first floor of the building, Lt Gen Singh said. The commandos rappelled down to the building roof, broke the window on the first floor and evacuated IAF men. Thereafter the building was demolished with the help of IEDs to neutralise the terrorists.

According to the Army , the terrorists were carrying high velocity grenades having capacity to damage tanks. Besides that, army also recovered wire cutters, radio sets, a pamphlet of Jaish-eMuhammed and other sophisticated weaponry .