Ultras’ poor knowledge of area did them in: IG

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

The three terrorists could not inflict heavy causalities in Dinangar for two reasons — their little knowledge of the topography of the area and their haste to complete the action before the break of dawn.

“The terrorists lack of knowledge of topography of the area apparently forced them to resort to ‘scattered action’ which, eventually led to saving of a lot of lives. Moreover, they were in a hurry to finish whatever they could before dawn for fear of being caught before getting neautralised by our security personnel,” said Ishwar Chander, the Inspector General (Border Range) who was the first officer to initiate the police operation against holed up terrorists.

The terrorists’ lack of geographical knowledge saved at least 300 families of police personnel putting up in their residential quarters situated within the police station complex and at a short distance of 10-12 meters from the room where terrorists got holed up.

“They could have sneaked in these quarters and could have held families as their hostages. It was one reason we had to neutralised them as soon as possible. We could not use stun grenades or tear gas shells to catch them alive for this reason. Moreover, these grenades are used where the enemy hides himself but, here they were in front of us fighting like regular soldiers,” said Chander.