New Delhi:
Infiltration at the India-Pakistan border has dropped by 30% in 2015 as compared to 2014, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament today while replying to a debate on the terror attack at the Pathankot air base.
"Only 121 cases of infiltration had taken place in 2015, compared to the 222 cases of 2014," the minister said. "If we had not kept vigil on borders, the numbers wouldn't have gone down."
There has been a reduction in the number of deaths as well, Mr Singh said. "Over the past year, there has been 17% less martyrs and 39 per cents less civilian deaths."
With 7 security persons being martyred during the three-day operations at Pathankot, the opposition had launched a scathing attack on the government in Lok Sabha today. Dubbing it a critical mistake to hand over the operation to the National Security Guards, the opposition had also questioned what Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lahore "stopover" had achieved, since the attack took place a few days later.
Responding to the charge, Mr Singh said, "We want good relations with Pakistan but not at the cost of the swambhiman (self respect) and samman (dignity),".
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said there was no coordination between Defence and Home ministries, the Cabinet Committee on Security had no meeting on the situation. It was more of a "show" and less effective, he said.
Asking how the Defence and the Home Ministries could wash their hands off, BJD's Kalikesh Singhdeo said the National Security Guards are used only to tackle urban hostage situations and not for counter-terrorism and added it was "a critical mistake" to hand over the operation to the NSG.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikkar said the Army and the forces had "acted according to standard procedure, but everything cannot be disclosed".
"It is dangerous for the nation's security to turn it into a political issue. I assure you that gaps have been filled. Security audits have been done," he added.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)