Now, RPG fired at police station in Tarn Taran district

Amritsar/Tarn Taran, December 10

A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the Sarhali police station rocked the border district of Tarn Taran around 11.30 pm last night. Though no casualty was reported, windowpanes of the adjoining Saanjh Kendra and a portion of the wall were damaged in the attack. The RPG did not explode.

Inspector Parkash Singh, SHO of the Sarhali police station, along with nine other police personnel, was present at the station when the attack took place. Apparently, the miscreants targeted the police station, but the RPG got diverted after hitting an iron grill of the gate and landed in the adjoining Saanjh Kendra. Army officials reached the spot to hold a probe. Police sources said seven suspects were detained by the police.

“As per a preliminary probe, it was a high-grade military hardware possibly smuggled by anti-national forces from Pakistan,” said Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav after visiting the crime scene. He said the miscreants carried out the attack from across the Amritsar-Bathinda highway (NH-54).

The police have registered a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against the unidentified miscreants, he said. “The attack was carried out at 11.22 pm last night. The police have recovered the launcher and the propeller from the road,” he said.

“It was Pakistan’s strategy to bleed India,” he said, adding that the police were working in tandem with the BSF and central agencies and would give an appropriate reply to the perpetrators.

This was the second RPG attack in the state in the past six months. Earlier, a similar attack had occurred at the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in May this year. The police had linked it to Canada-based gangster Lakhbir Singh Landa and Pakistan-based terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda. The probe was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency.

Punjab has been on an alert following intelligence inputs that gangsters and terrorists could target police personnel and police stations.

The SSP had passed instructions to depute an armed constable at the entrance gate of police stations and a constable on the rooftop to keep an eye on suspicious activities. The orders were passed on October 15.

The RPG attack hints at glaring negligence on the part of police officials at the Sarhali police station.