A day after visiting Parliamentary panel chief expressed apprehension that militants may target Pathankot airbase once again has sent security agencies for a tizzy and combing operations began all along the villages on the Indo-Pak border areas of Punjab. Over two dozen villages and around 60 Deras of Gujjars were combed for suspected persons. And Punjab Police was candid in declaring ‘all safe’. But the combing operations have brought one fact in the open there has been new settlement along the border by these Gujjar families either migrating from Jammu and Kashmir or from Chamba in Himachal Pradesh. Even the security agencies believe that some of them are from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and looks as if the notorious Pakistan intelligence agency ISI is behind such a move. Most of these nomads have no documents to authenticate their Indian nationality. They may be nomads but sinister elements making inroad under the shadow of them cannot be rule out. Here the apprehensions expressed by Parliamentary panel chief sounds logic if seen in the backdrop of ‘1947 Kabaili attack’ by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir to capture Indian territory. The coming up of such new settlements not only are security threat but becomes handy for the Pakistani forces and militants to make forays into Indian territory in an adverse situation. Pathankot had experienced one of the worst terrorist attack early this year. The early morning terrorist attack came after a Superintendent of Police and two others were kidnapped and thrashed and their vehicle taken by ‘four armed men in military fatigue’ a day ahead has the similarities to the July assault in Gurdaspur district again in Punjab. The Pathankot attack comes six months after another terror strike where suspected Pakistani terrorists had sprayed bullets on a moving bus and stormed Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur district bordering Pakistan, killing six people and injuring eight. The terrorists were shot dead after a 12-hour long gun battle. Both the attacks came weeks after meetings between Indian and Pakistani prime ministers and an upswing in the relations between the two countries. The Pathankot attack came close on the heels of an upswing in India-Pakistan ties after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise trip to Lahore and held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. The attack in Gurdaspur came after Modi and Sharif met in the Russian city of Ufa and agreed to explore ways to pursue peace talks stalled for more than two years between the two countries. The Pakistan supported terror machine from across the border is capable of springing surprise which is a
dangerous trend India should be caution of it.
