WSN Service
CHANDIGARH: Militants struck in the union territory of Chandigarh within a week of the claim made by the Chandigarh Police of having brought about a significant improvement in the Situation in the centrally-controlled town.
In an attack on a police party near Maloya in the union territory, the militants, said to be half a dozen in strength, gunned down a home guard and injured three others, including a sub-inspector. All the injured were admitted to the local P.G.I Hospital.
On hearing of the incident, the entire police leadership of the territory including its I.G, Mr.R.S.Gupta and S.S.P., Mr Sumedh Saini, with hundreds of forces reached the Maloya village to turn the place in a veritable cantonment. Maloya is the birth place of Bhai Beant Singh of the Indira Gandhi assassination case.
But as seen as the force reached Maloya, a false message came from Zirakpur, a few miles towards Ambala, that another firing incident had taken place there. The force then rushed to Zirakpur to find the it had been misled. Evidently, the incident at Maloya showed that militants have accepted the challenge of the Chandigarh police that the Sikh groups actions in the territory could not be stopped notwithstanding claims to the contrary made by the Chandigarh police authorities.
The local police claimed to have “bottled up” the militants who had been striking in the Union Territory until six months ago.
Addressing a joint press conference the inspector General of Police R.S. Gupta, superintendent of Police, Mr Sumedh Singh Saini, said the militants would not be able to organize any shootouts in the city. “The possibility of a bomb blast in one part or the other of the Union Territory cannot be ruled out”, they added.
Gupta and Saini said the intelligence network had been strengthened and the presence of security forces had been increased to foil any such efforts.
Saini said four militants groups the Babbar Khalsa, the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), the Bhindranwale Tigers Force and the Khalistan National Army (K.N.A.) were frequenting the Union Territory and the city police was all set to meet any challenge from them.
The SSP added that the Babbar Khalsa was the most active group. Nine militants had been killed by the city police in the first six months of 1991. Four civilians had been killed this year against six in the same period last year.
He revealed that the number of arrested militants had gone up to 39 as against 21 in the corresponding period last year. The recovery of firearms, too, was on the higher side remarked Saini and hastened to add, “The credit goes to the men of the local police. In fact local policemen were outstanding in their performance.
Saini announced that the police was keeping a strict watch on its men having links with militants. He said until now one head constable and two constables had been dismissed from service for having links with militants under Article 311 of the Constitution which empowers the appointing authority to dispense with the services of any govt employee* without holding even a departmental enquiry.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991
