Nine killed after gunmen storm police station in Indian Punjab
Heavily armed men dressed in military fatigues stormed a police station on Monday in India’s northern frontier state of Punjab close to the border with Pakistan, killing nine people and wounding several others.
Armed police eventually overcame the group of gunmen after a 12-hour battle in the town of Dinanagar, about 15 km from the international border. Police killed three unidentified assailants who had pulled up at the police complex in a stolen car, automatic weapons blazing, at about 5 am.
Soldiers were also deployed, at least one of them armed with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.
"We have been able to limit (the attack). They are surrounded, they are holed up in the police station. We are on top of the situation," said Harcharan Bains, an adviser to Punjab’s chief minister.
A local police chief was among those killed.
Police sources said the attackers entered India from Pakistan two three days ago in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, a short distance to the north.
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," said Singh, whose constituency in the Jammu region borders Gurdaspur.
Attacks on security installations by militants dressed as soldiers or police are common in Jammu, but Monday’s was the first such assault in Punjab in 13 years, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks militant violence.
Now nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan have fought three wars since both nations gained independence in 1947.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in insurgencies in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad’s foreign office said it was not aware of any reports that the people involved in Monday’s yesterday’s attack were Pakistani.
It issued a statement condemning the assault and extending condolences to the government and people of India, pushing back against suggestions the assailants had crossed from Pakistani territory.
India’s Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he had spoken to the head of India’s Border Security Force and "instructed him to step up the vigil" on the border.
"The situation is under control," Singh said.
Five bombs were also found on a railway track in the state, in a possible sign of an attempted coordinated attack.
The dead included four civilians and two policemen, said H.S. Dhillon, a senior Punjab police officer. Some others were wounded, he said. A suspected militant was also killed, but his body had not yet been recovered, according to another official.
The group of about five attackers came in a white Maruti-Suzuki car, dressed in army uniforms, said Bains, the adviser to the Punjab chief minister.
The attackers took the vehicle at gunpoint from a roadside restaurant, another local politician said.
Television footage showed the car with its windshield peppered with bullet holes, and broken glass and bullet casings on the passenger seat. What appeared to be improvised explosive devices on railway tracks were also shown.
Earlier this month, Modi met his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif and agreed top security officers from the two countries would meet to discuss counter-terrorism. Modi also agreed to visit Pakistan next year.
On Monday, India’s opposition Congress party accused Modi of appeasing Pakistan and there were rowdy scenes in India’s parliament, where members of the lower house demanded a resolution condemning the attack.
