At Pathankot Air Force base, PM Modi breaks protocol to meet soldiers

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Pathankot, October 28

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew in to the Pathankot Air Force base from Rajouri on Sunday afternoon and distributed sweets to soldiers after getting the barricading placed between him and the air personal removed in his endeavour to have a direct interaction.

The PM also had a look at the newly inducted state-of-the-art Apache helicopters in his brief 30-minute interaction.

Modi surprised many when he asked the Special Protection Group (SPG), which provides him with security cover, to keep aside the barricade saying “soldiers were his family members and there was no need to separate him from them.”

He also distributed sweets to commemorate the festival of Diwali.

Dressed in Army colours, the PM was accompanied, among others, by Army chief Bipin Rawat, Northern Army commander Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh and Pathankot station commander Air Commodore IT Kurien.

Modi also inspected the fleet of Apache choppers, which was formally inducted into the force on September 3, during a ceremony presided over by then Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa.

The PM’s visit was kept under wraps and even top district administration officials were not kept in the loop.

Deputy Commissioner Ramvir claimed that he had no knowledge of the PM’s trip.

Meanwhile, sources disclosed that ever since eight cutting edge Apache helicopters were brought to the air base the security threat has gone up considerably.

“The Integrated Perimeter Security System (IPSS) is being deployed in the air base. It will be in place by December and later it will also be deployed at five other bases across the country considered to be critical. The base is under intense scrutiny of the authorities particularly after a report of the Parliamentary standing committee on Defense in 2017, which did not speak well about it,” said a source

The IPSS will include a smart fence, surveillance systems, thermal cameras, motion detectors and a central control and command centre.

On January 2, 2016, the air base was attacked by four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists. They gunned down seven security men before being annihilated in a 48-hour-long operation.