Terrorists might have entered air base before alert sounded

Terrorists, who displayed ‘military-like tactics’ in the Pathankot air base strike, may have entered the campus before an alert was sounded while crucial hours were lost in verifying a Punjab Police SP’s claims about his abduction by the attackers, security agencies said.

Sources said that immediately after the alarm was sounded, security at all vital installations, including the Pathankot air base in Punjab, was enhanced to the highest level to make it difficult for the terrorists to mount an attack.

“We suspect the terrorists must have entered the air base in the morning of January 1 while the alert was sounded a few hours later in the evening,” they said.

A few hours were also lost in verifying the inputs provided by Punjab Police SP Salwinder Singh, who has claimed that he was kidnapped along with two others by the terrorists, the sources added. Sources said that police officers whom the SP had informed about the terrorists initially did not take him seriously, thus leading to some crucial hours being lost.