Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 28: Two Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) recovered from the possession of three slain Pakistani militants at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district of Punjab yesterday have taken the militant trails to Narot-Jaimal area of Sialkot sector in Pakistan, where from they had reportedly been launched at least three to four days back for carrying out major terror attack.
Generally, the GPSs are damaged by the militants after entering the area of their target to finish the clues of the route taken by them and the area from where they were launched but this time they failed to do so and both the GPSs in possession of the militants have been seized by Punjab Police, which have established that trails of the militants led to Pakistan.
Top police and CID officers from Jammu and Kathua today visited Dinanagar for detailed examination of the site of encounter, modus operandi used by the militants in carrying out attacks and planting IEDs on railway track, recoveries made from them and other inputs.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Intelligence agencies have succeeded in decoding one of the GPS while another couldn’t be decoded so far though the cyber experts of NIA were making all out efforts to decode it and extract more data. The data retrieved from the GPS so far indicated that the last position of the militants had been recorded at Narot-Jaimal in Sialkot sector of Pakistan on the intervening night of July 21 and 22. The route taken by the militants after infiltration into the Indian territory to reach Pakistan was being tracked with the help of GPS.
The GPSs remained switched off on the intervening night of July 21 and 22 but they were on afterwards. They also had recording of the border route and the coordinates of yesterday morning when they carried out the terror attack at Dinanagar police station
“The GPSs data has given very vital clues about movement of the militants from Pakistan to Punjab including the border route taken by them for infiltration and their last location at Narot-Jaimal in Sialkot sector of Pakistan. The cyber cell experts from Chandigarh were trying to extract more data from the GPS and de-code second GPS to gain more clues,” sources said, adding the available data has beyond any doubts established that the militants had set off from Narot-Jaimal area of Sialkot sector of Pakistan after the intervening night of July 21 and 22.
They added that in all probabilities, the militants had crossed at least two to three days before the attack and taken shelter on the border before moving towards the National Highway in Pathankot, planting IEDs there and striking at Dinanagar police station.
“Dinanagar police station had been programmed in the de-coded GPS, which indicated that the militants had Punjab as their target in mind this time instead of Kathua, Samba or Jammu as security forces on this side of the International Border were on alert following specific inputs of the attack,” they said.
Further analysis of the GPS has also suggested that the entry point of the militants into India was somewhere near Bamiyal on Lakhanpur-Pathankot border, sources said.
The GPS devices the militants were carrying were switched on after they crossed into India from Pakistan, probably through a canal of the Ravi river, sources said.
The Ravi flows down from Himachal Pradesh to the Jammu border before entering Punjab at Madhopur. It criss-crosses the Indo-Pak border thrice before finally flowing into Pakistan ahead of Gurudaspur and merges with Chenab river.
As the currents were very strong, security agencies believe they used one of the canals to enter India and then switched on the two GPS devices, which were recovered from the encounter site at Dinanagar.
The tracking point on one of the devices showed Talwandi point, Parmanand village and Dinanagar, while the other had Gurudaspur Civil Lines marked, indicating that the area was also their target.
The 15 km stretch from the point they crossed over into India at Bamiyal was covered by the terrorists on foot before they planted five Improvised Explosive Devices on Talwandi-Amritsar railway track, sources said. A night vision device has also been recovered from the railway track, they added.
The terrorists had made every attempt to conceal their identities and even removed markings from their clothes including underwears. They were not carrying any food items except for some loose dry fruits. The terrorists were carrying three AK 47 rifles, several Chinese-made grenades, besides 10 magazines with more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
They added that one of the top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Maqbool Bhai had co-ordinated the terror attack in Punjab.
Sources said all the three militants, who have created mayhem yesterday before being eliminated were caught on a CCTV camera whose footage surfaced today in a significant development in the attack case.
The 14-second video footage showed three men, wearing Army uniform, having big backpacks and carrying AK assault rifles, walking down the road at 4:55 am yesterday morning.
The images were captured by a CCTV camera placed at a shop at Taragarh intersection in Dinanagar area, just before they entered this Punjab town bordering Pakistan.
During investigations, it emerged that the terrorists unsuccessfully tried to snatch a mini truck (tempo) from its driver and then opened fire on a moving bus, sources said.
A man heading to buy vegetables in his Maruti car became their target. He was thrown out on the road and his car hijacked.
Earlier, this morning, Punjab police defused two grenades seized near the operation site at Dinanagar police station complex.
Seven people, including an SP, were among killed in yesterday’s terror strike that lasted around 12 hours.
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