Will not allow terrorists to regroup: Badal

GURDASPUR - Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Saturday said terrorists will not be allowed to regroup in the state.

Addressing the media here after meeting the families of two Punjab Police personnel who died fighting Pakistani terrorists in the Bhamial sector April 24, Badal said the police and security agencies are fully geared up to face any challenge from terrorists.

“We will not allow terrorists to regroup in the state and to disturb the peace of Punjab. The Punjab Police is well equipped to tackle any kind of emergency and we are keeping a close tab on all the developments,” said Badal, who is also the state’s home minister.

Two Pakistani intruders were gunned down in the Norat Jaimal Singh area of this district after a fierce gun battle that also injured one policeman.

According to the Border Security Force, the intruders had infiltrated after two rockets were fired April 19 into Indian territory from the Pakistani side.

The firing of rockets was followed by an improvised explosive device (IED) blast, suspected to have been carried out by miscreants with help from Pakistan’s border guards, the Pakistan Rangers, in the Bhamial sector close to the electrified barbed-wire fenced border.

Punjab has a 553-km-long international border with Pakistan which has been fenced with barbed wire on the Indian side.

The state was gripped by a violent insurgency from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.