Gurdaspur:
An early analysis of data on Global Positioning System or GPS devices recovered from the terrorists who struck in Punjab's Gurdaspur yesterday shows that the Dinanagar police station was a pre-determined target.
The location of the police station had been programmed into the devices to help the three terrorists, suspected to be Pakistan-based, find their way to it after they entered India, a senior official associated with the investigations told NDTV.
"The pre-fed position in the GPS shows they used the tri- junction of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Pakistan to sneak into India," they said.
The officials said the choice of the Punjab police station as a target could point to an attempt by terrorists to hit beyond Jammu and Kashmir, where they have found it difficult to operate with security being tightened after the last few attacks in Hiranagar and Kathua in the Jammu region.
The Dinanagar Police station is about 12 km away from the terrorists' suspected entry point into India. Senior officials said that the route is used by drug smugglers. "It is possible that a smuggling cartel was used for reconnaissance to zero down on Dinanagar Police Station for the attack," an official said.
In further evidence that the terrorists had planned a major attack, said the Punjab Police, 10 live bombs were found from the police station, where the terrorists struck on Monday, holing up in an empty building in the complex and firing at policemen for about 12 hours.
After the three terrorists were killed, Security forces entered the police station and found AK47 guns, ammunition and Chineses-made hand grenades, apart from two GPS devices.
Footage from a CCTV camera placed at an intersection just before they entered the town of Dinanagar, shows the three men, wearing army fatigues, walking down the road at 4.55 am, with the AK47s in hand.