Parliamentary panel likely to visit Pathankot, Gurdaspur in February

A Parliamentary panel has decided to visit Pathankot, where terrorists attacked an Air Force base on 2 January, leaving seven security personnel and six militants dead.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs chaired by Congress MP from Rajya Sabha P Bhattacharya has planned to visit the Indo-Pak border areas in Rajasthan and Punjab, and Pathankot will be part of the itinerary, sources said.

On 2 January 2016, a heavily armed group, suspected to be from the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station, part of the Western Air Command of the IAF.

The other site, which the committee members plan to visit in Punjab is Gurdaspur, where three terrorists, believed to be of Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, had sneaked in from Ravi river along the border in Punjab on the intervening night of 26 and 27 July and attacked a police station in Dina Nagar.

Seven people including a Superintendent of Police were killed by the terrorists before they were neutralised by Punjab Police.

The visit is likely to happen in the second week of February, the sources said.

“We had visited Indo-Bangladesh border last month. This time, the plan is to visit Indo-Pakistan border and assess the situation,” sources in the committee said on condition of anonymity.

The panel wanted to discuss the Pathankot terror attack in its meeting on 18 January but citing ongoing investigations by the NIA, the Home Ministry had sought some more time from the committee to share details on the attack.

Hence, the panel changed the agenda and has decided to discuss the issue at a later date.

In the 31-member panel, the BJP has 13 members, Congress 4, BJD 2, Trinamool Congress 2, AIADMK 3, CPI-M, CPI, SP, TRS, TDP, Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiv Sena one each. NDA members have majority in the panel.