Firefight at India police station as ‘militants’ attack

Militants have attacked a police station in the Indian border-town of Gurdaspur.

Several people, including at least one policeman, have been killed in an attack by gunmen on a police station in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Firing is still on.

Police sources said three to four terrorists in army uniforms and carrying automatic weapons were hiding inside the police station.

Monday’s attack began at 5.30 a.m.at Dinanagar town in Punjab’s frontier district of Gurdaspur, close to the India-Pakistan border and near the border with Jammu and Kashmir state.

India closed Lahore-Amartsar Border immediately after this incident and Indian Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badel said that there were information of such attack from Pakistan but border security did not work effectively.

Six people have been killed and ten others wounded, according to TV reports.

In a related development, five live bombs were found on Amritsar-Pathankot railway track and the train services on the route had been suspended.

The gun battle between security forces and alleged terrorists ensued after the latter opened fire on the police station and a bus.

Four terrorists, in army uniforms, are now holed up in an empty police station in Dinanagar.

But Monday’s killings were unusual, analysts said, because they occurred in Punjab, where militant attacks have, in the past two decades, been rare, and could signal an expansion of militancy beyond Kashmir. Security has been stepped up on the border to Pakistan in response. “Later in the vehicle he told us about the terrorists and it was his swift action of picking his cycle and running which eventually saved him”, said wrestling coach Akash Verma, who works at Gopi Sports Academy. “Directions would have come from there”, said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. What appeared to be improvised explosive devices on railway tracks were also shown.