Twenty commandos of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) were injured in the operation at the Pathankot airbase on January 2, says the charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The number, which has come out in the public domain for the first time, indicate how vicious the Pathankot attack was. It lasted a little over 10 hours. An official, however, insisted that barring two instances, most injuries were not of a serious nature.
Of the 20 injured NSG commandos, 12 belong to the 51 Special Action Group (SAG) comprising trained Army personnel. NSG is a mix of personnel drawn from the Army and the Central police forces who come on deputation.
To put things in perspective, 19 NSG commandos were injured in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008 which lasted 60 hours.
On January 2, four heavily armed men of the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) stormed the Pathankot airbase and opened indiscriminate fire at the security personnel. They also set vehicles on fire.
In hiding for 19 hours
The terrorists had infiltrated into the Indian territory on December 30, 2015 from the Simbal border outpost in Punjab.
They reached the airbase in the early hours of January 1 and hid first in a drain and then in a dilapidated shed on the premises for almost 19 hours.
On the way from Simbal, the terrorists commandeered a taxi and an SUV belonging to the Punjab police officer Salwinder Singh. Once the operations began, the terrorists were confined to a small area, behind a thick growth of vegetation near a building, and were engaged by the NSG and Army personnel for about 12 hours.
In all, seven security personnel were killed at the Pathankot airbase and 37 more injured.
‘Nature of injuries critical’
A former NSG chief said, on condition of anonymity, that injuries to NSG commandos during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks were not very grave. “If a bullet has grazed past the toe of a commando, we record that also. This helps us during post-operation analysis to contemplate what preventive actions could have been taken. We should not always go by the number of injuries ... the nature of injuries is a critical aspect that decides the success or failure of an operation,” he said.
R.C Tayal, who headed the NSG during the Pathankot operation, refused to comment.
