Three civilians and four security personnel, including a superintendent of police, were killed early Monday when three heavily-armed terrorists said to be from Pakistan went on a killing spree here, shattering two decades of calm in Punjab and sparking an 11-hour gun battle that left all three attackers dead.
It took several hours for Punjab Police commandos to eliminate the terrorists who, in military fatigues, stormed a police station complex in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district, once a hotbed of militancy and adjoining Pakistan, taking security forces by surprise.
Dinanagar is located barely 15 km from the Pakistan border.
Punjab Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini told the media: “We (Punjab Police) engaged them and killed all three terrorists. We lost four security personnel. The terrorists were well armed with good firearms and good ammunition and were carrying GPS sets."
Asked if there was a Pakistani hand in the mayhem, he said: “It is too early to say from where they have come.”
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: "If we are hit, we will give a befitting reply. We want peace with Pakistan but not at the cost of national honour."
This was the first major terror attack in Punjab after the assassination of then chief minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995 in Chandigarh, joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
The bloody saga began at 5.30 a.m. and ended by 4.30 p.m. when the police took back the entire police complex, which included the police station and residential quarters which were quickly emptied once the attack started.
The final assault by the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team of Punjab Police on the complex ended with intermittent firing and grenade attacks from both sides.
A Home Guard jawan survived the 11-hour ordeal and ran out of one of the complex when the operation ended.
When journalists and police personnel finally entered the residential quarters, they were pock-marked with bullets fired from automatic weapons and light machine guns.
In an emotional outburst, locals raised slogans hailing the Punjab Police.
Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh succumbed to injuries suffered in the gun battle between security forces and terrorists who were holed up in the complex, officials said.
The dead included three civilians, one of whom was shot dead in a bus stand and two others who were killed in a hospital near the police complex. Three Home Guards in the complex were also killed.
Police officials admitted the complex was a soft target.
"We were hit by a burst of gunfire. I was hit on the shoulder," said a police sub-inspector in the morning as he was taken to a hospital. "They are firing indiscriminately every five minutes."
The clearly well-planned attack took the small town of Dinanagar by surprise. Gurdaspur district borders Pakistan on one side and Jammu and Kashmir on the other.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon went into a huddle with senior ministers.
The terrorists first hijacked a passing car on the outskirts of Dinanagar after shooting its driver.
They then drove into the town, shot dead a man near the bus stand and then fired at a Punjab Roadways bus packed with passengers.
But its driver, Nanak Chand, did not panic and instead scared the terrorists by driving towards them. As the gunmen moved back, the driver swerved the bus and drove it away.
The gunmen then stormed the police complex.
As panic gripped Dinanagar, police and troops from a nearby army unit quickly surrounded the complex. But police officials said that it was the Punjab Police which battled the terrorists.
The army's Special Forces and the National Security Guard provided the second ring of security. Television crews were told not to provide live footage of the fighting.
That the terror attack was multi-pronged was evident from the recovery of five bombs on the Amritsar-Pathankot rail track. The discovery took place minutes before a passenger train was to cross the section.
ATTACKERS USED AK-47S, GRENADES: PUNJAB POLICE
The terrorists involved in Monday's attack had grenades and AK-47 rifles, were well trained, and their modus operandi was suggestive, but it was early to say from where they came, Punjab Police said.
Talking to reporters after the day-long operation, Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini said all three assailants "were armed with AK-47 and grenades".
He said police were examining their belongings to ascertain their identity.
"It is too early to say from where they have come," Saini said after the 11-hour gun battle ended.
He said that the modus operandi of the terrorists, the way they launched the attack on this small town, the combat dress they were wearing and their weaponry were "suggestive".
The terrorists were well equipped and carried two GPS systems, Saini said. "We will probe this matter further," he said of the terrorists' possible Pakistani link.
According to Saini, the terrorists first killed a man at a bus stand in the morning and two others at a hospital near the police station.
"We have lost four security personnel," he said. The fatalities included three men serving in the Home Guards who were in the police complex. Also killed was Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh.
IN GURDASPUR, SWAT DOES PUNJAB POLICE PROUD
A 28-member team of Punjab's Police's SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team on Monday led from the front to battle and kill heavily armed terrorists who stormed a police station complex in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district.
The SWAT team, along with commandos and personnel from the Punjab Police, engaged the three heavily armed terrorists in a fierce gun battle for nearly 11 hours.
Despite specialised personnel from the army and the National Security Guard (NSG) reaching Dinanagar, the Punjab Police decided to take on the terrorists, with the SWAT taking the lead.
The army, NSG and paramilitary troopers were on standby.
The SWAT was floated four years back by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the home minister, to establish a crack commando force in Punjab.
"The idea has borne fruit with the SWAT giving a befitting reply to Pakistan-controlled terrorists who struck at Dinanagar," Badal said here.
"The SWAT team, which is four years old, put its training to good use by successfully bringing down all three heavily armed terrorists at Dinanagar in a no holds barred fight," he said.
Badal said the idea to form a highly trained commando outfit followed the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack of 2008 when crucial time was lost because the NSG team was stationed in Delhi.
"The new team created in Punjab is not only equipped with the latest weaponry but has been trained by Israeli experts. Moreover they are highly motivated and equipped to handle every exigency," he added.
The SWAT team deployed in Dinanagar was involved in an exercise at Amritsar and therefore could be deployed in Gurdaspur immediately, Badal said.
Seven people, including a senior police officer, three Home Guards and three civilians, were killed in the terror attack.
'I AM BUSY, CALL ME LATER,' POLICE OFFICER'S LAST WORDS
"I am busy, call me later." These were the last words Punjab's Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh told his eldest daughter Ravinder Kaur on Monday morning before terrorists killed him in Gurdaspur district.
Singh, 48, died while fighting the three terrorists holed up in the police station complex in Dinanagar town, about 15 km from the Pakistan border.
"I called my father on his mobile at around 9.30 in the morning when we came to know that an encounter is going on. 'I am busy, call me later' was his only reply," Ravinder Kaur told reporters here.
With tears rolling down, she said her father was engaged in the counter-offensive launched by the police when she called him.
Ravinder, who is pursuing bachelor of dental surgery from a Bathinda college, is the eldest among three children.
Singh, who headed the detective branch of police in Gurdaspur, suffered bullet wounds and died in a hospital.
Singh was inducted into Punjab Police in 1984 on compassionate grounds after the death of his father Achar Singh, who was also employed with the police.
"Baljit Singh's father died in a road accident in 1984 but the police then believed that he got killed by the militants. For his exceptional service his son was given the job as an ASI (assistant sub inspector)," a senior police official told IANS.
Singh's youngest son Maninder Singh has gone to Gurdaspur to bring his father's body to his hometown. He is likely to cremated with state honours here on Tuesday.
ARVIND KEJRIWAL SALUTES SECURITY PERSONNEL IN PUNJAB
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday paid tributes to the security personnel killed by terrorists in Punjab.
"I salute the soldiers who sacrificed their lives while fighting the terrorists. Jai Hind," the Aam Aadmi Party leader tweeted.
Earlier, he condemned the incident in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district as a "cowardly" attack on innocents.
Seven people, including a senior police officer, were killed in the terror strike. All three terrorists were also killed.
NEED FOR CONCRETE POLICY AGAINST TERRORISM: KPS GILL
There was urgent need for a concrete policy against terrorism to prevent incidents like Monday's terror attack in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, former state police chief K.P.S. Gill said, adding that political parties should desist from hyping such attacks.
Gill, 81, who is credited with rooting out militancy in Punjab about two decades back, said India should be firm about its policy concerning Pakistan.
Other security experts IANS spoke to also said that India needs to adopt a tough approach in dealing with its western neighbour.
Gill said tackling terrorism was not child's play and there was need to take concrete policy measures rather than indulging in rhetoric.
"Politicians should stop giving hype to such attacks and instead get together and formulate a policy to curb terrorism. Such incidents are happening due to the absence of hard, concrete policy (against terrorism) by the government even after Operation Blue Star," Gill told IANS.
Three civilians and four security personnel, including a superintendent of police, were killed early Monday when three heavily-armed terrorists suspected to have infilterated from Pakistan went on a killing spree in Dinanagar town of Gurdaspur district, shattering two decades of calm in Punjab.
All three attackers were killed after an 11-hour gun battle.
Gill said the attack did not signal that Khalistani groups were trying to revive militancy in Punjab.
However, he said there were still a lot of pockets in Punjab and its borders with Pakistan where people harboured pro-Khalistan ideology.
He said such thinking needs to be rooted out before tackling the menace beyond Indian borders.
Gill said it was disappointing to see political leaders creating "media hype" after a major terror strike.
"I wonder why all this? Instead, why not formulate a policy aimed at retaliating against militant groups and their masterminds? Why go soft every time even after knowing where they (terrorists) come from," Gill said.
Gill denied that intelligence failure was a major reason for Monday's terror attack, saying that cross-border terror groups keep making persistent efforts to carry out their designs and are able to penetrate and carry out attacks only a few times.
Strategic expert Brigadier S.K. Chatterji (retd) said India will continue to be prone to such attacks if the government does not firm up its stance vis-a-vis Pakistan and terror outfits operating from its soil.
"Retaliation is the answer to such terror attacks. The actual reason behind the Gurdaspur attack will come to light after some days. I feel there is a need for consistency and toughness," Chatterji told IANS.
He said India's intelligence-gathering apparatus also needed to be strengthened.
Chatterji said there was need for the Indian Army to observe more closely how militants were misusing the border areas and take necessary counter-measures.
He said the Gurdaspur terror attack was an attempt to shatter the hard-won peace in Punjab.
"There is a need to intensify patrolling along the border and monitor movements carefully," he said.
E.M. Rammohan, former director general of Border Security Force, said Indian security agencies needed to understand how militants struck in a border area.
He said either they were foreigners who infiltrated and reached the civilian areas in Dinanagar with their arms and ammunition or they could be members of Pakistan-based outfit operating in Jammu and Kashmir or Punjab.
Dinanagar is about 15 km from the international border from Pakistan.
Rammohan also said that the government should not follow a policy of vacillation towards Pakistan by sometimes going soft on its approach to talks.
PARKASH SINGH BADAL CALLS OFF MEETING WITH PAKISTANI ENVOY
In wake of the terror attack in Punjab's Dinanagar town on Monday which left seven people dead, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal called off his scheduled meeting later this week with Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, an official said.
The meeting between Badal and Basit was to be held on July 29 in Chandigarh.
Harcharan Bains, advisor to chief minister on national affairs and media, said that the meeting was called off "in view of today's incident at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district".
Bains said that the the Pakistani mission had requested for a courtesy call during Basit's visit to Chandigarh this week.
PAKISTAN CONDEMNS PUNJAB POLICE STATION ATTACK
Pakistan on Monday condemned a terror attack in the Indian state of Punjab in which seven people -- three civilians and four security personnel -- were killed during an 11-hour gun battle.
"Pakistan extends heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the government and people of India and wish the wounded speedy and full recovery," Dawn quoted Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah as saying in a release.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist incident in Gurdaspur, India, today, in which a number of precious lives have been lost. There are reports of others having suffered injuries. Our thoughts are with the bereaved families," the release said.
"Pakistan reiterates its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. "We extend heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the Government and people of India and wish the wounded speedy and full recovery," the release said.
The attack took place earlier in the day in Punjab's Gurdaspur district when terrorists in army fatigues hijacked a car reportedly near the Pakistan border, drove to Dinanagar, opened fire at a bus stand and then stormed a police station. All three terrorists were killed in the gun battle.
