The Pathankot air base attack should serve as a wake-up call. Political, bureaucratic and defence leadership at the Centre and the states must put their heads together, setting aside party and turf divides, to find viable, solutions to internal security challenges.

As a concerned citizen, and a former internal security professional, I am astonished and pained at this attack, close to our border. We know that these fidayeen attackers are well-equipped, trained and financed by our enemies, waiting to attack us again and again. Emboldened by the success of their previous attacks in Gurdaspur, their target this time, was one of the most sensitive defence bases on our borders, in the same belt.Debates on television channels and the write-ups in the print media continue. But some vital questions on the episode remain unanswered. Everyone I meet in our neighborhood park, club and social gatherings, knowing my professional background,  quizzes me. Unfortunately, I have very few answers to give. After an attack of such a magnitude, instead of the Army, Air Force, NSG and the state police separately issuing statements and holding press conferences, each trying to defend its role, there is a need for the political leadership at appropriate level at the Centre and state levels to jointly come forward to tell us what happened. And, more importantly, how they shall make sure that such attacks do to take place again. The VVIP and VIP visits to the sites of the operations are also not reassuring. The strategy and the command-and- control structure to deal with such situations in the future have to be clearly spelt out in a convincing manner. And if there are heads that will roll, let them.The facts coming to light, thanks to investigative journalism, are still very intriguing. Defence and security analysts are raising and demanding answers to very pertinent questions and pointing to chinks in our security armour, repeatedly revealed after such attacks. Here are a few questions that one wants to ask:There were credible human and technoological intelligence inputs from multiple agencies about a group of armed terrorists  having infiltrated from across the borders to carry out a fidayeen attack on a sensitive location in the area. What action was taken to fortify the security around Pathankot Air Force Station as a followup to these alerts issued just a few days earlier? My information is that when the attack took place, the DSC was not alert at all and was only following routine activity.Why did the Army leave the sensitive IAF base to be guarded by its own  DSC which is both ill-equipped and ill-trained? The  Garuda is better but not enough. We believe that a highly sensitive defence establishment has several layers of impregnable security. How then could the armed fidayeen  enter?How were a group of five jihadi terrorists, wielding automatic weapons  and in Army fatigues, able to infiltrate a highly guarded border in a sensitive zone? I understand that the thermal-imaging system in this sector had become dysfunctional. Why was it not immediately repaired? And more sinisterly, did the infiltrants get to know about this from their sources, indicating serious breaches in our border-guarding outfits? How were the jihadis able to waylay an SUV bearing a blue beacon light in which a local Superintendent of Police in civvies was travelling with two friends and his cook. They abducted the same vehicle to reach the target area near the IAF base, after killing one of the occupants and roughing up another but sparing the SP. This SP who was able to escape, reportedly informed his superiors but his story was not taken seriously because of his low credibility due to his past conduct and reputation. But his story was true. The mission from which the SP was returning does not appear to have been the visit to a dargah. Was it from an all-night  party  at the farmhouse of a local politician? I do hope that the NIA team interrogating him shall arrive at the truth soon.This area is known for the nexus between drug smugglers and unscrupulous but influential police officers. One hopes it has not spread its wings to cover cross-border terrorism? Why was  the SP of Pathankot district  allowed to be repeatedly interviewed by television channels? Why was he not subjected to thorough questioning by security experts to know how he was kidnapped and managed to escape? Has the command-and-control mechanism of the Punjab Police totally collapsed?I will not dwell into the  details of the three-day operation  to neutralise the terrorists, since enough has been said on this already. The facts are not known to me. But the lack of proper command was clearly visible. Being a defence establishment, it falls under  the area of responsibility of the Indian Army. The NSG, a commando force used only for curative action in pin-pointed  hostage situations, cannot be called upon to rid an area of terrorists.Why do we repeatedly fail to capture even one or two of the fidayeen to present clinching evidence against the group responsible? There are tools and gadgets to temporarily put them to sleep with the Army commandos and the NSG. Were these used? Instead of summoning help from the Centre, why are sensitive installations like the Pathankot IAF base not able to build indefensible security, capabilities and counter-attack competence?When are we going to wake up to the realities of an extremely volatile internal security situation?Instead of blaming enemies across the border, why don’t we focus attention on sharpening our own counter-terrorism skills/ equipment, operational coordination to handle crisis situations like this? In this area, we still appear to be in a  nascent stage. Why are we asking our enemies across the border to stop striking, knowing full well that they will not?Let us not forget that India faces one of the highest threat levels from Islamic jihadis. We have excellent defence and intelligence agencies cooperation with   Israel, which faces the highest threat but has developed effective means to counter these. Why don’t our agencies learn from their Israeli counterparts ?Every nation, including ours, has the sovereign right to defend its integrity. This has been acknowledged by the international community, including the US. What prevents us from exercising this right more proactively?Much more money needs to be pumped in, especially in acquiring cutting-edge technologies to sharpen the arsenals of our intelligence agencies  at the Centre and state levels. A well-defined command-and-control mechanism has to be put in place to deal with such attacks in the future. How many of these actions shall be initiated ? If the past is an indicator, very few.The writer, a retired IPS officer, is former Secretary ( Internal Security), Ministry of Home Affairs and Special Director, Intelligence Bureau.