NSG hub at Pathankot soon, 500 commandos to tackle terror threats

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New Delhi: A new hub of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) will be established at Pathankot in Punjab soon for faster deployment during counter-terror operations. Zee News has exclusively learned that the Ministry of Home Affairs is all set to raise the sixth hub in Pathankot which houses a major base of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and has several defence establishments in the vicinity.

The Special Action Group of NSG also known as 51 SAG will be deployed in Pathankot. The hub will have a force of 500 NSG commandos who will be stationed permanently in Pathankot. The proposed Pathankot hub of NSG will be able to secure airbases, Army stations and other important assets in Punjab as well as respond much more quickly to tackle hostage like situations.

Home Ministry sources say Pakistani agencies are trying to disrupt Punjab in a big way and have been looking to push in armed terrorists in the state. Following the strong anti-infiltration grid by the Indian Army and Border Security Force along the Line of Control and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has been trying to exploit the weak link along the border with India in Punjab to push in terrorists along with arms and ammunition.

Terror groups like Babbar Khalsa Khalistan Force and Pakistani Army have been using Pakistani ISI resources, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to drop weapons along the border in Punjab which can then be used to create by terror groups in the state as well as Jammu and Kashmir. After several such drones were spotted and weapons recovered, a team of NSG officers had toured the region to find out the details and routes being used by Pakistani agencies to airdrop weapons in Punjab.

Pakistan terrorists had in January 2016 attacked the IAF base in Pathankot. Six Pakistani terrorists and seven armed forces and security personnel were killed in the attack which lasted for almost three days. The terrorists belonged to Kashmir-based United Jihad Council and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, five hubs of NSG were established in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Kolkata (West Bengal), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Hyderabad (Telangana).