Indian intelligence warns of possible fedayeen attack in Eastern part of country

Indian intelligence had issued warnings of a fedayeen attack not only in the country's West but also in its eastern states during the New Year.

India Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Jan 2016, 05:06 AM
Updated : 3 Jan 2016, 08:38 AM

On Saturday, the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, on the strategic tri-junction of Punjab, Himachala Pradesh and Jammu& Kashmir, was attacked by a group of fedayeen terrorists.

"They had plans to blow up the technical area and destroy vital air assets but they failed because we had advanced intelligence and the Pathankot base was among a few specifically alerted," said Air Marshal SB Deo, chief of India's Western Air Command.

Pathnakot has a MiG squadron (different makes) and one of Mikoyan attack helicopters (different makes) loaded with machine guns. Four such helicopters gifted by India to the Afghan National Army were flown from the Pathankot base.

The fedayeen group was stopped well outside the technical area by guards, before Air Force commandos went airborne in attack helicopters to attack the terrorists from air.

Soon enough, the Punjab police and the National Security Guards got into action because they were already on alert.

But bdnews24.com has learn that the alert for a possible fedayeen attack was not only sounded in the West in the rundown to the New Year.

India's external intelligence agency RAW had also sounded a similar threat in the East.

Kolkata's Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha told bdnews24.com that the security forces in the city have been put on high alert.

He did not specify the nature of the threat communicated by the intelligence, but bdnews24.com learnt that the Garden Reach shipyard in Kolkata port area was a possible target—as were the air bases up north in Hashimara and Bagdogra, were important.

Intelligence analyst Subir Dutta told bdnews24.com that the fedayeen attacks seemed to have been planned targeting bases where ISI spy networks were recently detected.

An ISI mole in the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Western Command, KK Ranjith, had supplied detailed designs and information about the country's western bases, including the one at Pathankot.

Following his arrest, Dutta says, the ISI wanted to stage attacks against air bases before the IAF could change its deployment and disposition both of air assets and the security detail.

Similarly the busting of the ISI's spy network in Kolkata's Garden Reach Shipyard would also prompt them to 'gainfully use up' the intelligence before everything was changed.

While many say the Pakistan army and the ISI is trying to sabotage the peace process between the two countries initiated by Indian PM Narendra Modi's surprise stopover at Lahore, Dutta feels the ISI is specifically targeting IAF.

"The IAF is already down to 34 squadrons, much below its sanctioned operating strength of 42 squadrons that it needs for a worst-case two front war. The Modi administration is desperate to make this up by off-the-shelf purchase of 36 Rafale fighters from France," Dutta said.

"So, if the terrorists managed to blow up five or six MiGs or Mikoyan helicopter that would heavily dent the IAF capabilities. This is a good example of war at peace-time, a part of the Pakistan army's answer to India's Cold Start doctrine of a swift offensive war," the former Intelligence Bureau official said.

Retired Major General KK Ganguly agrees. "The Pakistanis are worried over Cold Start and they want to target our assets, especially air assets that hold the key to the success of Cold Start."

He suspects the ISI is trying to kill two birds in one go—disrupt the Modi-Sharif peace process and damage key military assets.

Indian intelligence says it has received 'crucial inputs' from its Bangladesh counterparts over JMB's links to the Pakistani Jaish-e--Muhammed which was said to be behind Saturday's attack on Pathankot airbase.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating the 2014 Burdwan explosions, has been told interrogate a top JMB leader in West Bengal police custody after the input from Bangladesh was received.

"It is learnt that JMB leader Zia Ul Haque, arrested in 2014, was the key link between JMB and Jaish, and through it to the ISI. It appears that the ISI was preparing a small group of motivated fedayeen attackers who could hit out at eastern Indian and Bangladesh military assets," said a top NIA official.

He said the NIA will interrogate Haque yet again on these links.

"That is crucial to locating the fedayeen cells in the East and this is of common interest for us and Bangladesh," the NIA official said, but on condition of anonymity.