Indian soldiers take cover during the encounter with the attackers. PHOTO: AFP
Gunmen dressed in military fatigues killed at least 10 people, including three civilians, in India’s Punjab state on Monday before being shot dead in a 12-hour-long gunfight with security forces in a small-town police station near the border with Pakistan.
In what was the first such attack in the state in more than a decade, the assailants shot dead a roadside vendor and tried to hijack a bus before storming the police station, witnesses said.
Police said the attackers first targeted a roadside restaurant before taking off in a locally registered car. They then shot dead the roadside vendor near the Dinanagar bypass and opened fire on a passenger bus before storming the Dinanagar police station.
Director General of Punjab Police Sumedh Singh Saini gave a somewhat different account, saying, “One civilian was killed when the attackers opened fire at a bus station while the other two died at the police station.”
According to police officials, the gunmen also attacked a community health centre located close to the police station and a complex housing the families of police personnel.
The assault, which began around 5am, only ended at around 5pm when security forces finally entered the police station where the gunmen had been holed up.
All three of them were killed, police officials said, adding that four officers, including the local police superintendent, also died in the operation. Five live bombs were also recovered from nearby railway tracks, forcing train services to be cancelled.
Security sources in India claimed the attackers were suspected to belong to either Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad. “None of them were Sikhs,” one unnamed Indian security official said.
Indian police sources also claimed that the attackers entered from Pakistan two days ago. Some media reports suggested that they might have crossed into Punjab from Indian Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his top ministers have not made detailed statements on the attack, which came weeks after he met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. The incident is likely to cast more shadows on the fledgling normalisation process between the two neighbours.
Jitendra Singh, a junior minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, said he did not rule out Pakistan’s involvement. “There have also been earlier reports of Pakistan infiltration and cross-border mischief in this area,” he said.
Kashmiri leader Syed Salahuddin denied his men were involved. “They are not Kashmiris... According to my information definitely not... They could be home-grown militants,” he told Reuters by telephone.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal placed the blame for the assault squarely on the BJP-led federal government’s shoulders. He claimed the centre had intelligence that such an attack was imminent but still did not boost security along the border.
India’s Congress party too categorically blamed the centre for the attack, saying it was further proof of the BJP-led government’s ‘combined incompetence’.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh talked tough at Pakistan, saying that while India would not be the first to strike, it would not allow such incidents to go unpunished. He will make a detailed statement over the attack in parliament today (Tuesday).
Pakistan issued a statement strongly condemning the assault and extending condolences to the government and people of India, pushing back against insinuations that the assailants had crossed from Pakistani territory.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist incident in Gurdaspur, India, 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,” said a statement issued here Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2015.
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