'Punjab should take seriously its vulnerability to terror attacks'

Chandigarh, Jan 8: In the wake of the terrorist attack at Pathankot air base, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today cautioned that the state, which shares a border with Pakistan, needs to take seriously its vulnerability to such incidents.

Amarinder, MP from Amritsar, also hit out at Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy CM son Sukhbir Badal for their "casual and nonchalant" attitude following the second militant strike in the state within six months.

"The state due to its long border along Pakistan, part of which has proved to be porous, needs to take its vulnerability seriously," he said in a statement here.

The response of the state government particularly CM and his deputy during the last two attacks in Dina Nagar and more recently in Pathankot was very casual and disappointing, the PPCC president said.

The former chief minister added that "They (the Badals) behaved as if they belonged to some other country."

He maintained that the Akali-BJP government in the state cannot shrug off the responsibility just because the militants attacked a central installation like the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.

"After all the attack took place on Punjab soil and it was second attack in less than six months," he said as he demanded that a proper probe also be done involving the statement of the superintendent of police who was abducted by the militants.

The Congress's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, however, said that the Punjab Police deserves credit for timely intelligence alert which saved vital IAF assets and prevented any major collateral damage.

Expressing doubt over the state's preparedness against recurrence of such attacks, he said, "The Badals did not learn any lessons then and they are least expected to learn any lessons now."

He warned that given the fact that Punjab is a frontline state with a long border along Pakistan it needs to remain alert for any such attack in future also.

"But I doubt whether any sort of such thing has occurred to the Badals as had it been so, they wouldn't be talking and behaving in such a casual and nonchalant manner during such situation," he said.

PTI