*5 live bombs found on railway track
GURDASPUR, July 27: In a major terror attack, three fidayeen, believed to have come from Pakistan, today attacked passengers in a moving bus and stormed a police station, killing seven persons, including an SP, while all the terrorists were gunned down after a day-long operation.
In the pre-dawn attack, the terrorists, suspected to be members of either Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) or Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), in Army fatigues first targeted a roadside eatery, then sprayed bullets on a passenger bus and later barged into the Dinanagar police station.
Seven persons—three civilians, Superintendent of Police (Detective), Baljit Singh, a Punjab provincial service officer and three home guards were killed by the terrorists, said Director General of Punjab Police Sumedh Singh Saini, who led the operation against the terrorists holed up in an abandoned building near the police station.
He said 15 were injured of whom three were in a serious condition in the attack by the terrorists who snatched a white Maruti 800 car and moved about in it before abandoning it.
All the three militants were killed in the 12-hour-long gun battle with the police and elite commandos of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT). Chinese-made weapons and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were recovered from them, Saini said.
Though there was no official word on who the attackers were, they are suspected to have sneaked into India from Pakistan through the unfenced border between Jammu and Pathankot or Chak Hira in Jammu district, according to inputs received by Central agencies.
Earlier this year, terrorists belonging to JeM whose fidayeen combatants, clad in Army fatigues, stormed a police station in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on March 20 killing six persons, including three security force personnel.
“The operation is over,” a top Punjab police official said at the end of the fierce gunbattle. Combing operations continued for some time after the multiple attacks and the building was sanitised.
According to Punjab Police IG (Counter Intelligence) Gaurav Yadav, SP Baljit Singh succumbed to bullet injuries sustained in the gun battle.
Police said out of those brought to civil hospital at Gurdaspur, seven seriously injured were referred to Amritsar. They were aged between 15-55 years.
Three militants were killed in the operation, Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, Abhinav Trikha said.
“The terrorists were carrying sophisticated weapons. We have recovered ‘Made in China’ grenades from them. They were wearing combat fatigues,” Director General of Punjab Police, Sumedh Singh Saini told reporters here.
Saini said AK 47 guns and hand grenades were recovered from the terrorists, who attacked the sentry at the police station before engaging with the SHO and the SP.
He described the attack as “planned” as their modus operandi pointed at a specific direction.
There was heavy firing from both the sides, Saini said on the gun battle between the police and terrorists.
According to police, the attackers first targeted a roadside eatery and took off in a white Maruti 800 with Punjab registration number. They shot dead a roadside vendor near Dinanagar bypass.
They opened fire on passengers of a moving Punjab roadways bus before targeting a community health centre adjacent to Dinanagar police station.
The gunmen barged into the Dinanagar police station and opened indiscriminate fire. The militants also targeted another part of the complex where the families of police personnel reside and hurled grenades.
An alert has been sounded along the International Border in Punjab and Jammu as the terrorists are suspected to have infiltrated from there, the sources said.
A top official told reporters after the meeting that the attack was “serious”. He was replying to a question whether the Government considered it a big attack.
“I don’t know whether it is big or small. It is serious,” he said.
Dinanagar town, which is close to Pakistan, falls in Gurdaspur district. It is sandwiched between Gurdaspur town on the one side and Pathankot on the other and lies about 260 km from capital Chandigarh.
On October 14, 2007, seven persons were killed and more than 30 were injured when a powerful explosion took place at the cinema hall in Ludhiana, the last major terror attack in the State which had grappled with Sikh militancy for several years from 1980s.
In a related development, five live bombs were found on Amritsar-Pathankot railway track and the train services on the route have been suspended.
Officials said schools, colleges and other institutions have been shut today in the town in view of the incident.
Local resident Kamaljeet Singh Matharu, who said that the assailants had snatched his car after firing at him, said they were dressed in Army uniform and were heavily armed.
Matharu received gunshot injuries and is admitted to hospital.
Three of the dead were identified as Ghulam Rasool, Asha Rani and Amarjeet Singh.
Ishwar Chandra Sharma, IG, Border Zone, said the gunmen attacked a Punjab roadways bus and then entered the police station complex.
According to Civil hospital authorities at Gurdaspur, SP Baljit Singh was brought dead to the hospital.
Fear gripped the town this morning and people largely remained indoors.
“People are in a state of shock and terrified here after they came to know about the attack,” said Jatinder Kumar, whose house is just 500 metre away from the Dinanagar police station.
“We could clearly listen to the sound of firing going on at police station between and security personnel and (suspected) militants,” Jatinder, who is an employee of Punjab Health department, said.
Strongly condemning the terror strike, Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal said that terrorism was a national problem.
“Terrorism is a national problem, it is not a state problem. It has to be tackled by national policies,” Badal said and demanded that the border be sealed.
Meanwhile, some bombs were also found on the railway track, which officials said, didn’t go off despite a passenger train from Pathankot to Amritsar passing over them at about 5.15am.
The explosives didn’t go off as the wires were not properly connected, DySP, Pathankot (rural) Prabhjot Singh Virk said. (PTI)
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