TERRORISM// In the first major terror strike in Punjab in eight years, heavilyarmed terrorists in army uniform sprayed bullets on a moving bus and stormed a police station, killing six persons, including an SP, and injuring eight others in Gurdaspur bordering Pakistan on June 27. One terrorist was killed and another seriously injured in the gunbattle with security forces that stretched for over 10 hours as the terrorists, who went on a rampage at around 5 AM, were holed up in a vacant building adjacent Dinanagar police station.

The terrorists suspected to be members of either Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad have killed six persons — three civilians and three policemen including Superintendent of Police (Detective), Baljit Singh, a Punjab provincial service officer, police said.

Before striking the poilice station, the militants had also planted five bombs on nearby railway tracks. Official sources said it was too early to say which terrorist outfit had carried out the strike, but finger of suspicion is on Pakistan-based Lashkare- Taiba as the modus operandi of the terrorists was similar to the attacks in Jammu region in recent past.

Punjab Police personnel said they heard the terrorists shout “Allah hu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great”. The army was mobilised as the militants were holed up in Dinanagar police station complex.