In Majha border area, steps taken to fortify police stations

Repeated hand grenade and IED attacks on the police stations in border area have forced cops to take corrective measures not only as a deterrence against the gangsters but also to restore the confidence of the people.

The latest attack took place today morning at the Islamabad police station in Amritsar. This was the fourth attack in Amritsar district in the past one month and sixth such incident at a police establishment in the state.

On December 13, the gangsters had hurled a grenade at the Ghanian-Ke-Bangar police station in Batala, damaging the building in the process. These procedures include raising the height of boundary walls by several feet of police establishments falling in the ambit of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Batala police districts, guarding them with armoured vehicles and closing the gates after 10 pm.

“The gangsters who are behind these attacks have nothing to do with either the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) or the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). The Khalistan issue has been dead and buried for the last several years. The people responsible for the attacks are hardened criminals and extortionists,” said an SSP-rank officer.

The US-based activist Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Pasia, Germany-based Jeevan Fauji and Pakistan-based Harwinder Singh Rinda are the masterminds behind the recent incidents.

Cops are also keeping a strict vigil on anybody passing on front of these establishments.

Emphasis is being laid on the most sensitive of these police stations, including the one in Dera Baba Nanak. Incidentally, the Kartarpur Corridor, where security has been enhanced, falls in the jurisdiction of this police station.

PAP commandoes have already been deployed at strategic locations.

The gangsters, in a social media post, had warned the Batala police not to establish check posts after dusk. Officers, however, say they will not bow to such “ludicrous threats which had no meaning” and added that checking will go on as it was being done in the past.

“How can the gangsters dictate terms to us?” asked an officer. Sources say the confidence of the common man had been shaken and the police was doing everything to restore this confidence.

The police have inputs that these gangsters have mobilised their local contacts to carry out anti-national activities in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Batala areas and have also arranged huge consignment of weapons and explosives for them to execute their plans.

Although the police establishments have come under bouts of violence in the past too, yet the recent series of incidents triggered by the gangsters seem to be more synchronised and coordinated as compared to the ones that took place earlier.

Last week, two ADGP-rank officers, Mohnish Chawla and Naunihal Singh, visited the border range police stations and took stock of the situation.

Things have come to such a pass that gangsters come almost at will and lob hand grenades and other explosive objects into the compounds of police stations.