A deadly trail of unanswered questions and the assumption that it may not be the end
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Read: Terror Anew - The Gurdaspur attack is the first terror attack of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in Punjab
Read: Did drug cartels support attack?
Read: An interview with Punjab DGP and director of Punjab Police Academy S.K. Sharma
Where he talks to Tanveer Thakur about the police preparedness, new challenges and the things which need to be done to improve efficiency of the police in dealing with such situations in the future
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Previous attacks
August 31, 1995 Chandigarh (Beant Singh’s killing)
The last major terror attack in Punjab was carried out on August 31, 20 years ago when a human bomb killed then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and 15 others. The suicide bomber detonated the explosives outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh when the chief minister was about to get into his car. The killing is considered a watershed moment in Punjab’s era of militancy, which was on the decline during Beant Singh’s tenure and faded from Punjab after his killing.
The assassination was carried out by the Babbar Khalsa and the human bomb was later identified as Dilawar Singh, a dismissed Punjab policeman. The other co-conspirators include Balwant Singh Rajoana and Jagtar Singh Tara. Rajoana was given the death sentence and is currently lodged in a jail in Punjab awaiting the result of a clemency plea.
October 2007, Ludhiana (Attack on cinema hall)
Prior to Monday’s attack in Gurdaspur, a terrorist attack was carried out in Punjab in October 2007, when seven people were killed and 30 people were injured in powerful blast in a Ludhiana cinema hall. The twin bombs exploded within seconds of each other in the packed cinema hall, which was filled to capacity on account of a holiday. It was running a Bhojpuri movie watched mainly by migrant labour. Later, four people were arrested from Ludhiana for their suspected involvement in the blast but were acquitted in December last year by a trial court which gave them benefit of doubt. One of the accused died while in jail during the trial.
