CHANDIGARHG: In less than a month after the claims made by the Director-General of Police that there were hardly any ambushes by militants in Punjab his official car became the target of gunfire near Chandigarh recently.
The Director-General of Police PS Gill was reportedly not in the car when it was fired at. The vehicle was one of the bullet-proof cars officially given to Gill.
The DGPs car was fired upon near Kharar. The incident was kept a closely guarded secret. The car was slightly damaged. The incident took place on the night of January 10 when occupants of two other cars were also fired upon near Kharar. Three persons were killed and three others were injured in two separate incidents which took place close to the Kharar Textile Mill which militants attacked recently.
According to information available the Director-General of Police had gone to Ludhiana from where he planned to go to Patiala. (One of his three bullet-proof cars and an escort vehicle headed for Chandigarh from Ludhiana white the other two vehicles and the remaining escort vehicles went to Patiala. Gill reportedly went to Patiala. The incident came up for discussion at a senior officers meeting where the usefulness of providing more than one bulletproof vehicle to high-risk officials was stressed.
D.S. Mangat who was the Director-General of Police before Gill replaced him for the second time was the target of a bomb attack at Ludhiana in February last year. Before Mangat J.F. Ribeiro swearing his tenure as the Director General of Police also escaped an attempt on his life on the PAP campus in Jalandhar.
Meanwhile the Punjab Government has issued instructions: to district police chiefs to streamline the system of requisitioning vehicles from the public under the Police Act. According to the instructions the demand for any additional vehicles should be addressed to the District Magistrate. The district administration would try to find out the possibility of sparing government vehicles to meet the demand Incase sufficient number of vehicles was not available the admiration would hire tourist cars or taxis. Even then if the demand is not met the administration would requisition vehicles from individuals in such a way that no harassment was caused. The vehicles so requisitioned would be properly used and the owner duly compensated for the period for which his vehicle had been used.
The instructions have been issued in the wake of reports appearing in newspapers about the harassment of private owners of vehicles especially Maruti vans by the police all over the state.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1992
