GPS devices were pre-programmed

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

Analysis of the data obtained from the GPS devices used by the terrorists shows that the coordinates of the Dinanagar police station had been pre-programmed to guide the armed group to its destination.

The investigation shows that the entry point of the group into India was close to the tri-junction of the Punjab-Jammu and Kashmir-Pakistan border where a seasonal rivulet enters India and later merges into the Ravi north of Dinanagar. 

As this route is generally used by drug smugglers, it’s being now studied if smugglers had helped terrorists in conducting a recce to zero down on Dinanagar police station or in the plantation of pressure-triggered bombs on the Pathankot-Amritsar railway line. According to one theory, the group entered India on the intervening night of July 26 and 27. The choice of Dinanagar as the target was two-pronged, sources say. First, the place is a small town so it will be less prepared to handle such a situation than the district headquarters, Gurdaspur. Secondly, it demonstrated the ability of Pakistan-based terrorists to hit beyond Jammu and Kashmir.