Probe ordered into security lapse at Army HQ

“The killing of Major Purshottam in Srinagar is a serious matter. We are looking into it,” he said. Fernandes said that the probe would reveal the lapses that led to the militants entering the cantonment and killing an officer and nine soldiers. But he insisted that security measures had been revamped to prevent reoccurrence of the incident. On November 3 evening, armed terrorists, considered to be a suicide squad of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, scaledthe wall of the top security Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar, breaching the cordon of the 15 Corps headquarters.

Perhaps the best protected zone in Srinagar, the Badami Bagh cantonment also has the office of Lieutenant General Krishan Pal, the Srinagar Corps Commander. The Army has so far been unable to explain the lapse in security. Major Purshottam’s office is inside the cantonment and barely 100 metres from the well-protected Batwara gate of the cantonment.

Iron spikes are spread on the road leading to the gate to prevent any vehicle from crashing through. Apart from that there are two layers of barricades and armed soldiers manning the main gate. Despite all this security, three terrorists scaled the wall close to the PRO’s office, came in lobbing grenades and with guns blazing, killing nine soldiers and a Border Security Force personnel, apart from injuring six others. The terrorists then engaged the army throughout the night in a fierce gun battle and one of them succeeded in escaping. Of thethree bodies, the Army showed only one, claiming the other lay buried somewhere in the debris of the charred cantonment board building. This morning the Defence Minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief of Army Staff Gen V P Malik laid wreaths on the bodies of Major Purshottam and Havildar clerk P K Maharana. While Major’s body was flown to Jabalpur, Maharana’s body was taken to Puri.