Two years on, Punjab Police still clueless
CHANDIGARH: Despite the previous SAD-BJP government’s claim that the Punjab Police is a “capable force” to handle the probe into the Dinanagar terror attack, cops have failed to get any headway in the case even two years later. Three Pakistan-based terrorists had killed seven people, including three policemen, in Dinanagar on July 27, 2015.
However, the probe so far has failed to get clue in the attack that Punjab Police had claimed was carried out by terrorist outfit ‘Lashkar-e-Taiba’ at the behest of Pakistan. Apart from its failure to clinch evidence of any terror group’s role, police have even failed to trace starting location of the GPS devices used by the terrorists.
“We have written several reminders to Garmin to get details about the GPS devices, but the company has not replied to any. Our investigations are halted because the probe cannot move in any direction until we are able to find the locations used by terrorists to enter India before carrying out the attack in Dinanagar,” said a senior officer from Gurdaspur, who is involved in the probe.
Dinanagar ASP Varun Sharma said that repeated reminders have been sent to ‘Garmin’ in this regard.
‘THE PROBE IS ON’
Gurdaspur SSP Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said, “The probe is on and bulletins are being sent from time to time to the seniors supervising the probe.”
SP Baljeet Singh, two home guard jawans and four civilians were killed and 19 others were injured in the Dinanagar attack. The three terrorists first attacked a private bus and later took control of the Dinanagar police station in the early morning on July 27, 2015.
Till now, the only evidence the Punjab Police have to prove that the terrorists were from Pakistan is the ‘Made in Pakistan’ tag found on the gloves of a terrorist.
After a few days of the incident, though the police had claimed to have gathered evidence to prove the hand of Pakistan-based terrorist organisations in the attack, the matter was never taken up seriously with Pakistan by India.
Just after the attack, the Punjab government refused to hand over the probe to National Investigation Agency (NIA), claiming that the state police were capable enough to probe the matter.
The entire police operation to flush out the terrorists was led by then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini. Even as the army was called in Dinanagar, it was not involved in the operation.
‘BIG FAILURE’
“The mere claim that the company that manufactured GPS devices has not replied to the queries of the Punjab Police cannot be the excuse behind the failure to make any headway in the probe. It’s a big failure of our force. First, the move not to involve NIA in the probe into the terrorist attack and now the sluggish investigations are enough to indicate that there is something which the Punjab Police are not keen to reveal,” said a retired DGP.