Pakistan-made grenade lobbed at army camp in Pathankot; police call it terror attack

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, November 22

The twin border districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur were put on a high alert after two motorcycle borne persons lobbed a Pakistan-made low-intensity hand grenade towards an army camp at midnight in Pathankot.

Senior officers, after completing preliminary investigations, termed the incident as a “terror attack”.

IG (Border range) Mohinish Chawla, who rushed in from Amritsar early in the morning, was supervising the investigations.

Although no casualties were reported, the police took no chances and sounded an alert.

The police have recovered an i-20 car from the outskirts of the city. “The car was stolen from Harchowal falling in Sri-Hargobindpur on October 28. Apparently, the accused have used this car in the crime at some point in time or the other. It was bearing a fake registration number plate. Investigations are still in progress,” said a senior officer involved in the investigation.

By early morning the city had been converted into a fortress with teams of cops positioning themselves at strategic locations. The ammunition dump in Mamun cantonment, said to be the country’s biggest arms stockyard, was immediately secured.  

SSP Surendra Lamba and his team of officers reached the site within 30 minutes after which orders were given to set up a dozen check posts throughout Pathankot district.

The SSP said footage from CCTVs located near Triveni Dwar, the exact site of the attack, was being checked. The gate, located on the periphery of the camp, also serves as its gateway.  Minutes after the explosion, checking on the busy Jammu-Pathankot national highway was intensified, besides on the National Highway leading to Gurdaspur and Amritsar. 

In the neighbouring police district of Gurdaspur the cops upped the ante. “All vehicles on the Pathankot-Gurdaspur and Gurdaspur-Amritsar via Batala national highway are being subjected to checking. Security has been tightened at some other vital installations too,” said SSP Nanak Singh.

The attack occurred barely 500 yards from the outer wall of the high security Air Force station. On January 2, 2016, four Jaish-e-Mohammad militants had laid siege to the air base. A 48-hour fierce gun battle followed in which all the terrorists were killed. Before making their way into the base, the terrorists had kidnapped SP Salwinder Singh.   

Six months earlier, three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists had walked into the Dinanagar police station, 20 km from the Air base, from Bamiyal village near the international border. An 8-hour gun battle followed in which 7 persons, including the three infiltrators and SP Baljeet Singh, were killed.   

Terror attacks in Pathankot, Gurdaspur

On July 27, 2015, three Lashkar-e-Toiba militants entered the Dinanagar police station.

On January 2, 2016, four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists laid siege to the high security Air Force station in Pathankot.

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