IAF removes Pathankot airbase commanding officer Air Commodore JS Dhamoon

NEW DELHI: Less than two months after the Pathankot airbase came under attack by heavily-armed terrorists, who managed to breach the perimeter, the Air Force has transferred the officer commanding the base.

It has also come to light that the Air Force UAV that was monitoring the base picked up heat signatures of only four terrorists, with no trace of other two who were also allegedly involved.

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Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, who was the air officer commanding (AOC) of the base when it came under attack on January 2, has been posted to Air HQ, officials told ET. The Air Force has described his posting as ‘routine’ due to administrative reasons.

“He has been posted out after a normal tenure. It is a normal, routine posting,” the Air Force spokesperson has said. Dhamoon, it is learnt, has not yet completed two years as the AOC in Pathankot but officials have said that it is not unusual for an officer to be moved out earlier due to staffing issues.

The officer is being replaced by Air Commodore Anuj Mishra, who is moving in from Bengaluru. An inquiry into the attack and the breach of the air base defences is currently underway and a security audit of all major bases has also been carried out in the wake of the attack that resulted in the death of seven security personnel.

It has come to light that an Air Force UAV, which was circling the Pathankot base on the intervening night of January 1-2 based on a very specific intelligence input, picked up heat signature from the perimeter of the base that indicated four persons.

The signature was picked up at 2.28 am, with no indication of the other two attackers who were also allegedly involved in the attack. The first contact with the terrorists, however, was established several minutes later when they gunned down five unarmed defence security corps personnel at the cookhouse inside the base.

The probe is also looking into the possibility of an insider who helped the attackers in the planning and execution of the strike. The Air Force, which conducted a security audit post the Pathankot attack, estimates that it will have to spend over $1 billion on smart surveillance systems, drones and advanced intrusion detection systems at 54 major bases across the country.

The security audit, ordered by defence minister Manohar Parrikar within two days of the attack, looked at the current security setup and perimeter defence at all bases and recommended a comprehensive upgrade.