Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police (SP) and 11 others fell to the bullets in the 12-hour long gun battle between security forces and Pakistan-based militants who attacked Dinanagar police station around 5 am on Monday. Three militants were killed in the encounter. The militants were holed up in a vacant building adjacent to the police station.
More than two decades after the end of militancy in the State, the rattle of incessant gunfire brought back the memory of the sordid days as three heavily-armed militants in Army outfit stormed into Dinanagar police station after laying bombs on railway tracks, attacking passengers in a bus, spraying bullets on a nearby hospital, and shooting a driver in a carjacking attempt.
The Punjab Police, which has emerged as a champion in the entire operation, braved the militants who were well-equipped with sophisticated automatic weapons, with the Army, including Special Forces, supporting them from a distance.
Sources said the terrorists, suspected to be Pakistan-based jehadi elements, entered Punjab around 3 am, but their original target was not Punjab but Amarnath Yatra.
Intelligence inputs suggested that the terrorists could have come from Narowal in Pakistan and made their way south after infiltrating from the Jammu-Samba area. They perhaps lost their way, sources believe.
The BJP-led Central Government and the SAD-led Punjab Government have indulged in blame game. While the Union Home Minister has maintained that the States, including Punjab, was alerted about possible attacks three days ago, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal denied the same while adding that in case the Centre has intelligence inputs, it should have sealed the borders completely.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal immediately instructed Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini, a veteran in the fight against terror, to personally visit the spot, and monitor the situation. Saini, assisted by ADGP-Intelligence HS Dhillon, led from the front and refused to hand over the operations to the Army. Special Forces of the Army and the NSG as well as Punjab Police commandos had taken up positions around Dinanagar police station, cordoning off the area. In what is being seen as a coordinated attack, the militants were killed after hours of intermittent exchange of fire between the two sides.
As per police sources, three terrorists, wearing Army uniforms and heavily armed, attempted to snatch a "tempo" around 5.30 am but did not succeed. later, they managed to snatch a white Maruti 800 car, bearing Punjab's registration number, at a dhaba after shooting at the owner and injuring him. They also shot dead a roadside vendor near Dinanagar bypass.