Pathankot attack: NIA raids residences, office of Salwinder Singh

The NIA, that will be searching the Pathankot horror assault situation, performed searches including homes and workplace of Punjab Authorities SP Salwinder Singh at five locations on Friday.

Delivering the 3rd RV Raju Memorial Lecture on “National Security Management – Some concerns” on the occasion, Shri N N Vohra, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir said that special attention is required for National Security Management and services of specialists from the domains of Policing, Investigation, Internal and External Security including the Armed Forces is also necessary to meet this objective.

The lie detector test on senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh as part of NIA probe into the attack on IAF base in Pathankot concluded today and he will now be subjected to behavioural tests.

“I think there are issues…but we need to do much more”. Despite several onslaughts upon us in the history, our integrity and sovereignty has remained intact, he added.

He also said that states must promptly inform the Centre about any terror incident that takes place in their jurisdiction and the Home Ministry must hand over the probe to the central agency.

Speaking at a function in the capital to commemorate the NIA’s raising day, Vohra said the International Border in Punjab is not well guarded, and “in its present capacity” the BSF is “unable” to guard it.

The Governor asserted that in the wake of terror attacks, standard operating procedures must be strictly followed. To tackle situations such as the Pathankot attack, Vohra said a dedicated pool of specialised officers with expertise in various aspects of national security should be created.

“The existing Schedule to the NIA Act also requires to be reviewed for enlarging the list of offences to particularly cover those under the Ranbir Penal Code, Arms Act, NDPS Act, Explosive Substances Act and Cyber Terrorism offences, among others”, he said.

Salwinder, the SP of Gurdaspur, claims to have been waylaid and abducted by the terrorists who later went on to attack the Indian Air Force base on January 1 at Pathankot.