My tip-off prevented major terror attack: Punjab SP

Since it was dark we could not make out the exact number of terrorists but it looked like about four to five, he said.

On Thursday last, Mr Singh was on his way back to Gurdaspur from Pathankot when his official SUV, fitted with a blue beacon, was stopped by the terrorists. “What could I have done against 4 to 5 people who were armed”, he said.

He said the terrorists spoke in Urdu, Punjabi and also Hindi.

It is clear from the tactics that these terrorists have employed that a professional army had trained them, they said.

Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists based in Pakistan on Jan 2 targetted an Indian air base at Pathankot in Punjab, killing seven Indian security men.

In an exclusive telephone interview with Mail Today, Salwinder said it was his job to inform them about his abduction by the terrorists and had the authorities acted immediately, the terror attack could have been averted. When one of the terrorists accidentally pressed the hooter, they realised the vehicle was not an ordinary one.

With the driver of the Toyota Innova vehicle, Ikadar Singh, having been picked up by the terrorists from a spot near Gulpur-Samboli, 5km away from the International Border, it is being suspected that they crossed the border near that area.

“As I told senior officers, they reached Pathankot”. According to sources in the security establishment, the SP’s jeweller friend Rajesh Verma, who was with him when the former’s auto was waylaid, told investigators he had overheard a conversation between terrorists and their apparent handlers – traced by agencies to Pakistan – in which the jihadis seem to have been asked how the “other” terrorists had reached the “target” while this particular squad fell behind.

The police officer said they did not ask for directions as they had global positioning system and were talking about it. The director general of police and other senior officers were soon at Pathankot. I have got a new lease of life. “I know what I have gone through and how I returned”. I then called up my superiors and gave them the information on my abduction. They stabbed me from the butt of the rifle.

The cases were initially registered by local police stations in Pathankot that were transferred and handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a central probe agency that was set up after the audacious 26/11 Mumbai terror strike to probe all terror cases in the country. “… they were heavily armed”.