Chandi Mandir (Haryana): The army on Wednesday dismissed criticism over deployment of NSG over army in a predominant manner in the counter-terror operation in the Pathankot air base, saying it was a "joint decision" and that the army was fully involved in it. "There was NSG, Air force, Garud commandos. Application of NSG was a joint decision taken at an appropriate level which included service chiefs," said Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh, GoC-in-C, army's Western Command, told a media briefing.
There has been criticism of the decision to deploy the NSG personnel flown from Delhi on Saturday morning in the air force base in Pathankot when a larger number of army commandos were available in nearby garrison in the border city itself Army's special forces commandos were said to be better equipped to deal with the siege of the base.
Lt Gen Singh said said terrorists holed up in buildings in the air force station took "advantage" of it which took time in eliminating them. He said they also wanted to avoid a hostage situation as a large number of families and foreign trainees were residing inside the base.
"The buildings in the air force base station are such that which are located close to family quarters. The final group of two terrorists were in a two-storeyed structure where in the first our own troops were there. They (the families) had to be evacuated first and we had to avoid hostage situation because of that it took time.
"I also want to tell you that within these barracks, which are MES constructions. They are covered with steel doors. It is like sitting inside a bunker inside a building and so terrorists took advantage of it. The final body was recovered from inside of this structure," said Lt Gen Kamal Jit Singh at the Western Command Headquarters.
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