less than two months after three heavily-armed militants attacked Dinanagar town, the Congress party on Monday pointed at the loopholes in Punjab Police's approach to handle the terror attack during the ongoing monsoon session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
Terming it as “unfortunate” and “shocking”, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) lashed out at the opposition for “politicising” the “sensitive” issue like terror attack on the floor of the House.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal led the treasury benches while hitting out at the Congress MlAs for questioning the Punjab Police’s role, while the Prime Minister himself had appreciated the state police force, during the Union Cabinet meeting, for its “bravery and courage” in handling the issue.
The issue was raised by Congress MlA from Dinanagar Aruna Chaudhary during the Zero Hour who highlighted the “ground realities” of July 27 terror attack in which Punjab police patted its own back.
Putting a question mark on the functioning of intelligence and security agencies in the state, Chaudhary pointed out how the militants, armed with sophisticated weapon, reached Dianangar police station by crossing the border without anyone noticing them. “It was quite surprising that no one noticed them…there was no police nakka, no check,” she wondered.
“They reached police station after placing a bomb on a railway track and they also tried to stop a bus to kill maximum people…the question is that why no one get to know about it,” she said.
The MlA pointed that no police officer was present at the police station other than the home-guards. She further questioned why the Army was not allowed to intervene to neutralise three terrorists when it had reached the Dinanagar police station before Punjab police arrived.
“Army had reached 8:15 am at Dinanagar. But it was not allowed to start operations. Had Army been allowed to neutralise terrorists, the whole operation would have ended in one hour instead of 11 hours,” she said.
Also questioning state’s police chief’s role, she said that DGP reached Dinanagar via chopper on the next day to address a press conference, “can I ask why he was not provided chopper on the day of attackIJ”
As her remarks failed to go down well with the ruling party inviting a sharp reaction, the SAD MlAs interrupted with Cabinet Minister Bikram Majithia alleging Congress of politicising the issue.
Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader Sunil Jakhar said that there was a need to discuss what could be done to strengthen the state police force as we don’t have sophisticated and advanced weaponry those militants used.
On this, Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal maintained that by discussing this in the House, it is an attempt to discourage the police force which did a great work.
Intervening, Sukhbir Badal, who is also the state’s Home Minister, said: “I am really shocked…It is unfortunate that this issue is being raised in the House.”
He said that the brave manner in which the terrorists were taken head on had sent a strong message to Pakistan that terrorism would not be tolerated at any cost and Punjab alone can tackle them.
“We should be proud of our forces and should not raise any issue in the Assembly which undermines them…Punjab police took the action immediately and have controlled those militants in that building only otherwise things would have gone out of hand,” he said.
Jakhar, the leader of Opposition, said that the Congress MlA was trying to raise the issue of compensation and jobs to kin of those killed in the terror attack.
Chaudhary’s question regarding compensation, in terms of job and financial aid, to the dependants of the persons killed in Dinanagar terror attack was listed in the unstarred questions and the reply to the same was not given, because of which she said that she was forced to raise this issue in the House.