Gurdaspur: In the first major terror strike in Punjab in eight years, heavily-armed militants in army uniform today sprayed bullets on a moving bus and stormed a police station, killing six persons, including an SP, and injuring eight others in Gurdaspur bordering Pakistan.
One militant was killed and another seriously injured in the gunbattle with security forces that stretched for over 10 hours as the terrorists, who went on a rampage at around 5 AM, were holed up in a vacant building adjacent to Dinanagar police station.
The terrorists have killed six persons – three civilians and three policemen including Superintendent of Police (Detective), Baljit Singh, a Punjab provincial service officer, police said. Official sources said it was too early to say which terrorist outfit had carried out the strike, but finger of suspicion is on Pakistan-based Lashkar e-Taiba as the modus operandi of the militants was similar to the attacks in Jammu region in recent past.
According to Punjab Police IG (Counter Intelligence) Gaurav Yadav, SP Baljit Singh succumbed to bullet injuries sustained in the gunbattle. Police said out of the eight injured brought to civil hospital at Gurdaspur, seven seriously injured were referred
to Amritsar. They all were aged between 15-54 years. One militant was killed and another seriously injured in the operation, Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur, Abhinav Trikha, said, adding two to three militants were still inside the building.
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.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval about the situation. Singh said he will make a statement on the issue tomorrow in Parliament, where members today sought a detailed government response.
