Headlines
Punjab attack ends after 11 hours, three terrorists among 10 killed
Dinanagar (Punjab), July 27
Three civilians and
four security personnel, including a superintendent of police, were
killed early Monday when three heavily-armed terrorists said to be from
Pakistan went on a killing spree here, shattering two decades of calm in
Punjab and sparking an 11-hour gun battle that left all three attackers
dead.
It took several hours for Punjab Police commandos to
eliminate the terrorists who, in military fatigues, stormed a police
station complex in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district, once a hotbed
of militancy and adjoining Pakistan, taking security forces by surprise.
Dinanagar is located barely 15 km from the Pakistan border.
Punjab
Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini told the media: “We
(Punjab Police) engaged them and killed all three terrorists. We lost
four security personnel. The terrorists were well armed with good
firearms and good ammunition and were carrying GPS sets."
Asked if there was a Pakistani hand in the mayhem, he said: “It is too early to say from where they have come.â€
Home
Minister Rajnath Singh said: "If we are hit, we will give a befitting
reply. We want peace with Pakistan but not at the cost of national
honour."
This was the first major terror attack in Punjab after
the assassination of then chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995
in Chandigarh, joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
The bloody
saga began at 5.30 a.m. and ended by 4.30 p.m. when the police took back
the entire police complex, which included the police station and
residential quarters which were quickly emptied once the attack started.
The
final assault by the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team of Punjab
Police on the complex ended with intermittent firing and grenade attacks
from both sides.
A Home Guard jawan survived the 11-hour ordeal and ran out of one of the complex when the operation ended.
When
journalists and police personnel finally entered the residential
quarters, they were pock-marked with bullets fired from automatic
weapons and light machine guns.
In an emotional outburst, locals raised slogans hailing the Punjab Police.
Superintendent
of Police Baljit Singh succumbed to injuries suffered in the gun battle
between security forces and terrorists who were holed up in the
complex, officials said.
The dead included three civilians, one
of whom was shot dead in a bus stand and two others who were killed in a
hospital near the police complex. Three Home Guards in the complex were
also killed.
Police officials admitted the complex was a soft target.
"We
were hit by a burst of gunfire. I was hit on the shoulder," said a
police sub-inspector in the morning as he was taken to a hospital. "They
are firing indiscriminately every five minutes."
The clearly
well-planned attack took the small town of Dinanagar by surprise.
Gurdaspur district borders Pakistan on one side and Jammu and Kashmir on
the other.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon went into a huddle with senior ministers.
The terrorists first hijacked a passing car on the outskirts of Dinanagar after shooting its driver.
They
then drove into the town, shot dead a man near the bus stand and then
fired at a Punjab Roadways bus packed with passengers.
But its
driver, Nanak Chand, did not panic and instead scared the terrorists by
driving towards them. As the gunmen moved back, the driver swerved the
bus and drove it away.
The gunmen then stormed the police complex.
As
panic gripped Dinanagar, police and troops from a nearby army unit
quickly surrounded the complex. But police officials said that it was
the Punjab Police which battled the terrorists.
The army's
Special Forces and the National Security Guard provided the second ring
of security. Television crews were told not to provide live footage of
the fighting.
That the terror attack was multi-pronged was
evident from the recovery of five bombs on the Amritsar-Pathankot rail
track. The discovery took place minutes before a passenger train was to
cross the section.