28.7.15

Terror returns to Punjab


Three suspected jihadi terrorists armed with AK-47 rifles went on a rampage in Punjab's border district of Gurdaspur on Monday , killing three civilians and four policemen and marking the return of terrorism to the state which was ravaged by the Khalistani mayhem in the 1980s.
The terrorists, suspected to be members of either Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad, killed seven persons before Punjab police commandos gunned them down in an agonizing 12-hour battle.
Before storming the police station, the militants had also planted five bombs on nearby rail tracks.
This is the first time fidayeen attackers have stepped out of J&K and struck in Punjab, leaving security agencies both in the state and at the Centre concerned. The casualties included four cops--three young men of the Home Guards and superintendent of police Baljit Singh--all of whom were hit while staving off relentless firing from the attackers.
Civilian fatalities included 54-year-old Nirmala Devi, who was visiting a neighbourhood hospital for her pregnant daughter's checkup and was caught in the crossfire, and two others.
Railway trackman Ashwani, on his routine patrol, found five bombs on the railway track on the Amritsar-Pathankot section. He instantly alerted his superiors leading to diversion of trains that were to pass through the section, saving hundreds of lives.
The prospect of jihadi fidayeen venturing into Punjab took away from the sneaking relief that the Khalistanis were directly not involved. The three terrorists were holed up inside the two floors of a dilapidated brick-and mortar building after making a forceful entry at 5.35 am into a police station in Dinanagar 19 km from Pakistan's Narowal district. They were dressed in Army fatigues, a modus operandi common among Pakistani militants, and had Afghan nuts on them. The operation got prolonged because of the plan of Punjab Police to capture at least one of the terrorists alive in order to determine the identity of the terrorist organization that the trio were attached to and, as a logical corollary , ascertain the involvement of Pakistani state actors. Considering that Pakistan's spy agency ISI controls Lashkar, and has huge leverage with Jaish, the inquest will have a fallout for the efforts for resumption of peace talks with Pakistan.
Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini said, “There are enough pointers to establish that they came from across the border. They were carrying grenades, Kalashnikovs and sophisticated GPS systems. They killed our brave men who went down fighting and as a result we eliminated them.“ The DGP , who fought Sikh extremists in the 1980s and 90s, ruled out any involvement of pro-Khalistan men in the attack. “We will be going too far to come to that conclusion. At the moment, we have ensured peace in Punjab,“ he said.

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