Gurdaspur
The Gurdaspur district of the state of Punjab, on July 27, 2015, woke up to gun shots as three gunmen in Army fatigues attacked different sites.
They started their assault by shooting indiscriminately at an incoming Punjab Roadways bus. The bus driver showing attentiveness and courage drove straight to the assailants forcing them to clear the way. He then sped of directly to a government hospital for treatment of the injured passengers.
The shooters then carjacked a nearby Maruti 800 after killing its driver and then zoomed off to the Dina Nagar police station. In their way, they shot dead a roadside vendor.
Before entering the police station, the attackers shot at an adjacent community health centre, killing three civilians and a policeman.
The gunmen then entered the police station and opened fire at the occupants, seriously maiming five policemen. They were immediately engaged by the other policemen in the spot.
After an 11 hour, siege all three were finally neutralised by the special security forces.
Udhampur
Following the Gurdaspur attack, in nine days India experienced yet another attack in its vulnerable northern belt. This time, it was in the Udhampur district of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, an otherwise peaceful district.
A consortium of four terrorists wielding AK-47s opened fire on a convoy of BSF plying on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. The subsequent retaliation from the BSF forces resulted in the death of one terrorist. The BSF lost two of its soldiers.
Two terrorists managed to flee the scene while one, Mohammad Naved, was caught alive by the security forces. He claimed to be a resident of Ghulam Mohammadabad in Pakistan.
ISI-linked spies
The Delhi police have also been uncovering an emerging ISI (Pakistan's intelligence) linked spying racket in India's security agencies. In the latest case related to this spying racket, an erstwhile IAF officer from Punjab has been nabbed by Delhi police.
The accused KK Ranjith, dismissed recently by the IAF on receiving actionable evidence by security agencies, was posted at Bhatinda.
He was ensnared into a 'honey trap' set up by the ISI after he met an unidentified woman on Facebook.
Earlier a similar arrest was made in West Bengal of a serving army personnel. His arrest took the total number to five in the operations undertaken by the Delhi police to unearth a spying racket, headed by alleged ISI operative Kafaitullah Khan.
Pathankot
The state of Punjab witnessed yet another attack as it began the New Year with a continuing siege at the western frontier Indian Air Force (IAF) base.
In the wee hours of January 2 a posse of terrorist entered the IAF base and were immediately engaged by prepositioned elite security forces, Garud commando force, of the IAF, raised especially for such contingencies.
The security agencies had a credible intelligence of the attack after the centre alerted the concerned authorities and quickly dispatched the NSG. Earlier, on Jan 1, SP Salwinder Singh, whose car was forcefully taken by the terrorists had alerted the local police station. No credence was given initially but later the picked it up and it immediately became clear that Pathankot was the target.
Despite early intelligence, with sufficient time to mobilise troops to preserve the military sanctity of the IAF base, the security forces failed to prevent the entry of the terrorists.
Thus far, seven security troops have become martyrs and six terrorists have been neutralised. The combing operations continue, almost sixty hours since the operations began, around air base, akin to the size of a 'mini city'.