Pathankot attack: Niranjan killed as SOP did not include new bomb trap tech: NSG

New Delhi, Feb 12: The NSG lost an experienced counter-IED officer to a deadly booby trap in the Pathankot terror attack as the terrorists used an innovative technique whose antidote was not included in the Standard Operating Procedure of the elite counter-terror force.

After losing the "brilliant" officer Lt Col Niranjan EK, the NSG has now decided to revise its Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for defusing bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), a senior NSG official said here Thursday.

"Recently, we had an incident at Pathankot where a grenade was used as a booby trap and unfortunately NSG lost one of its brilliant officers. In this case, everything that was there in SOP was followed but the terrorists used an innovative thing which somehow was not included in the SOP and that perhaps led to this unfortunate incident. "We are now revising our SOPs.

We have learnt our lessons and we will incorporate(new things). The scope for improvement is always there. No one can say that the SOP or the procedure which is prescribed right now cannot be improved. Once we have this experience, we keep on updating these SOPs," NSG chief R C Tayal said while addressing an international seminar on combating the menace of IEDs.

The NSG Director General (DG), however, maintained that Niranjan, an experienced and highly-trained Commanding Officer of the Bomb Disposal and Detection Unit, had followed all laid down SOPs while sanitising the bodies of the four terrorists, killed in the attack on IAF base on January 3.

"He (Niranjan) followed the SOP," said the top National Security Guard (NSG) commander, as he vouched for his competence and professional acumen. According to senior officials of the NSG bomb data centre, Niranjan was probably the only officer who had a wide-range of experience in conducting back-to-back anti-sabotage and sanitisation checks on live bombs, including defusing IEDs found in Patna and Bodh Gaya in Bihar, Bangalore and Burdwan in West Bengal. The DG said a grenade that took the FBI-trained officer's life was concealed very cleverly by the terrorists. The brave officer had sanitised two bodies and was working on the third when the fatal blast claimed his life. (MORE) PTI NES SMJ SK SMJ