Terror attack leaves at least 11 dead in Punjab

Terror returned to Punjab on Monday, with three armed militants, allegedly from across the border, stealing a car after injuring its owner, killing three civilians in a state-run bus and capturing a police station using the arms within to shoot dead five policemen in a day-long standoff. By evening, the three militants, suspected to be part of the Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammed, were shot dead.

The terrorists, who had grenades with ‘made in China’ marked on them, sophisticated weapons, military uniforms and GPS units, were well trained, said senior Punjab police officials.

A superintendent of police was killed in the operation, one of the worst crises not just for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in the state, but also the central government.

The incident is likely to cast a shadow on the fledgling normalisation of ties with Pakistan, initiated at Ufa (Russia), where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. And, it points to a serious deterioration in the mood in Punjab, already low owing to the way the issue of political prisoners has been handled by the state government.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh talked tough against Pakistan, warning that though India would not be the first to strike, it wouldn’t allow such incidents to go unpunished. Though the issue brought short-lived unity in Parliament, the Congress categorically said the incident took place because of the incompetence of the state and central governments. It added the episode served as evidence that the government didn’t deserve to be at the helm of affairs.

The issue is likely to lead to further deterioration in the environment in Parliament, where the government has been unable to get either House to transact substantial business so far.

The Congress is buoyed by the fact that differences between the SAD and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have spilled out into the open. The SAD minced no words in blaming the Centre for Monday’s attack, with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal saying though the Centre had received intelligence reports of an imminent attack, it hadn’t sealed the borders.

The central government was more circumspect. The BJP desisted from a blame game, preferring to wait till there was an authoritative account of the encounter.

Although investigations are continuing and the identity of those who planned and executed the attack isn’t conclusively known yet (Rajnath Singh’s statement in Parliament on Tuesday will reveal more), it is clear it could not have been mounted without local support. This is because in addition to choosing a police station that had sufficient arms and ammunition continue sustained firing for about eight hours, the militants also had help in mining railway tracks with improvised explosive devices.

When seen against the deliberate and calculated killing of several Hindu leaders in Punjab through the past few months, beginning with the murder of the Punjab Shiv Sena chief, and complaints of the Punjab unit of the BJP to its central unit about the way some convicted of murder and sedition were being let off by the state government, things point to a return of a sense of alienation between communities in Punjab. Capitalising on this and the fact that no significant militant activity is taking place in neighbouring Jammu & Kashmir, this could well mean the focus might shift to Punjab.