Punjab to give Centre 103 acres free of cost for NSG hub in Pathankot village

A correspondence to Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Additional Secretary Police-II Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, sent by Punjab Home Department on Thursday, noted that MHA on May 5, 2023, had requested for allotment of “free-of-cost” land for setting up an NSG Hub at Pathankot.

“In this regard the government of Punjab has decided to provide free-of-cost land (103 acres) in Skoll village, Pathankot district, for setting up Regional Hub of NSG. You are requested to start the procedure of establishing the NSG Regional Hub at an early date,” the correspondence by the Punjab government to the Centre on Thursday read.
The demand for setting up an NSG wing in Pathankot had arisen following rise in incidents of sneaking in of militants from across the Pakistan order.

The information earlier obtained by The Indian Express revealed that the Punjab government wanted the Centre to pay for the cost of the land. Punjab Home Secretary Anurag Verma had then said that the state government had offered a chunk of 103 acres of “provincial government land” in Pathankot district for the NSG hub, the cost of which was to be borne by the Centre.

An official in Pathankot administration said that an acre in that area was worth Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

Punjab has always remained vulnerable to law and order problems, particularly having a history of secessionists backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), keeping the state on the boil. NSG teams have been frequently visiting the state for carrying out its analysis.

In the recent past, NSG personnel had dashed down to Amritsar to probe the low-intensity blasts around the Golden Temple. Among other visits in the past, NSG personnel had come to the state to probe the attack on Punjab Police intelligence wing headquarters in Mohali and Ludhiana court complex blast.

When armed terrorists had stormed the Air Force Station of Pathankot in 2016, the MHA had flown the NSG commandos who battled with the militants and killed them all.

Punjab shares 553 km border with Pakistan which makes the state vulnerable to militant attacks from the neighbouring country. In 2015, in a terror attack from across the border, terrorists had also laid siege to the Dinanagar police station in Gurdaspur distrct.

On June 9, 2021, the Punjab Home Department while responding to a correspondence dated December 4, 2019, wrote to the Union Department of Home Affairs, stating that the state government had identified a chunk of land measuring “103 acres at Skoll” (also read as Sakol) village in Pathankot district for setting up the NSG hub. “This land may be provided to the Government of India on payment of cost of land as may be worked out by the collector as per the existing rules on the matter,” read the correspondence, which pointed out that the Centre had requested for allotment of land “free-of-cost”.

As latest as on May 17, the office of Pathankot deputy commissioner wrote to Punjab Home Department regarding the availability of the said chunk of land subject to Centre making the payment for the same.

In 2019, the Centre while mooting the idea to set up Regional Hub of NSG had written to the Punjab government that – “As on date, the NSG is well-disposed to carry out assigned tasks through New Delhi-based units in conjunction with its regional hubs. However, the prevalent security environment coupled with vast geographical spread of the country necessitated enhanced footprints of NSG to execute its assigned tasks. The raising of regional hubs post 26/11 Mumbai attack has provided a substantial fillip to the reaction capability of NSG in the peninsular Indian and eastern coast. A similar need is felt for an NSG hub in the northern part of the country to bolster reaction capability.”

The NSG – which has a pan-India mandate for counter-terrorist and counter-hijack operations – had initially planned its regional hub at Amritsar to “bolster reaction capability” in North India, but later zeroed in on Pathankot to set up the hub.

“The Khalistani movement, though largely contained, given the geo-strategic situation and nefarious designs of our Western neighbour, may lead to a Terrorist Initiated Incident (TII) necessitating immediate response. Further, the revered holy site of Golden Temple presents a lucrative target for anti-national elements to reap disproportional dividends from any terrorist incident on the premises,” the proposal had read.