Gurdaspur : Punjab Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh is a much wanted man: he had a brush with the Pathankot terrorists while he was returning after visiting a shrine on the night of December 31. Travelling with two other men, the SP was not in uniform; though he was in his official car he was not using the beacon that gives it the right of way in traffic. The SP claims his sports utility vehicle was stopped and the terrorists were armed with AK-47s; they spoke in a language that was a hybrid of Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. “I had gone to offer prayers at the shrine near Kathua. While returning, we were stopped near the Kolia turn. We thought it was a police barricade. Four-five people barged into our vehicle and carjacked my SUV. They put off the lights. My friend Rajesh Verma was driving. We later came to know that they were terrorists,” Salwinder said. “I could not resist as they were heavily armed. They threatened to shoot us. We were blindfolded, gagged and tied. We could not react. I had not taken my gunmen along since I was going to a shrine,” the police officer explained.
“They snatched my mobile phone and also took away Verma’s phone. They used it for talking to their commander,” he added. When his gunman called on his mobile phone and asked for ‘SP saab’, they (the terrorists) said ‘ Vallekum Salaam’ and disconnected. They attacked Verma, slit his throat and left him for dead. The police officer said they did not ask for directions as they had a global positioning system and were talking about it. The claim is not being taken at face value and owing to the inconsistencies in his account the SP was interrogated for nearly six hours by intelligence agencies. The officer, however, claims his timely information ahead of the attack alerted security agencies and prevented a major terror strike. “It was dark, so it was hard to count how many men were there,” he said trying to explain why he provided inconsistent accounts of how many terrorists he had encountered.
The abduction happened around 11.30 pm on Thursday night (December 31). The attack at the Indian Air Force base took place around 3.30 a.m. on Saturday (January 2). “My account is 1,000 percent true. After I was dumped by my captors I freed myself and went to a nearby village Golpur Simbli. I told the villagers who I was. I then called up my superiors and gave them the information about my abduction. As for his alleged links with smugglers in the border area, especially the odd time he was moving in the area, the SP said: “If anyone can prove my links with smugglers, I am willing to give up my life.” Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has said despite the information from Singh, the location of the attackers was pinpointed as Pathankot only on Friday afternoon. That was at least 12 hours after the seizure of Singh’s unmarked vehicle. One local report said the assailants dumped Singh’s car 500 metres from the base. How they got into the compound is still unclear. Once inside, they burst into a guards’ mess and fired indiscriminately.
‘They left me to die’
On their way to the Pathankot air base, the terrorists slit the throat of 40-year-old jeweller Rajesh Verma, who was in the car with the SP, and left him for dead. He lived. “They slashed my throat and when the blood spurted, they said ‘leave him here, He’ll be dead in a minute’. Then they left me in the car and walked off,” Verma told NDTV. He managed to crawl out and made his way to a nearby gurdwara. One of the terrorists also called his wife on the mobile they had snatched from him, Verma recounts. “We are his friends. He will be back at home within an hour, they told her,” he said, adding, “They even told me I could pick up the SP and cook on my way back.” They also said they don’t harm the elderly, women or children. The SP’s beard had slipped out of its roll and he looked older,” said Verma, now at his home in Gurdaspur, neck heavily bandaged.
