According to the information, the city deputy commissioner Abhinav Trikha had sent an SOS to the Tibri cantonment between 8.30 am and 9.00 am, following which the first helicopter carrying army men landed at the PAU regional station grounds within an hour.
The 11-hour gun-battle between the suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants and Punjab Police that killed seven people could have been could have been cut short if the Punjab Police had allowed the army to take control. But the repeated denial of permission by the Punjab Police to the army delayed the final manoeuvres, resulting in the crisis ending the crisis in the evening.
According to the information, the city deputy commissioner Abhinav Trikha had sent an SOS to the Tibri cantonment between 8.30 am and 9.00 am, following which the first helicopter carrying army men landed at the PAU regional station grounds within an hour.
Further within hours following SOS from the district administration, nearly half a dozen choppers carrying over 150 army men landed in the PAU campus and were driven to the spot – the Dinanagar police station around 10km away. The army took stock of the situation and repeatedly kept on asking for taking control but was always asked to wait.
The first request came around 12 noon when the senior army officers took stock of the situation and analysed the kind of ammunition and firing from the militant side. They asked the Punjab Police to hand over the operation to them but were told to wait as the decision was to come from the Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini.
Saini reached the spot around 1 pm and met DIG Arun Kumar Mittal, IG (border range) Ishwar Chander Sharma and SSP's of Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Majithia and other officials. Saini said, "We have decided to engage them with intermittent fire till they ran out of ammunition. However, when we were ready to take the operation to another level, news filtered in that the terrorists might be 'human bombs'. Once again we had to change our plans."
Even at this time the army requested the police to let them take control as suspected militants were human bombs, but the police officers told them that they have already worked out a strategy of raiding this old DSP's office and that they themselves would be undertaking operations. This attitude of Punjab Police again kept the 150 NSG and SPG commandos waiting.
A senior city officer said, "Following meetings with the senior police officers, Trikha got an idea that the situation is likely to go out of hand and that the army should be asked to reach Dinanagar." He added that Trikha was keeping political bosses and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in the loop about the crisis. "Though some of the senior officers did suggest that the army should be given the reigns following death of Gurdaspur SP (investigation) Baljit Singh, but due to some reasons which I cannot disclose the request was again refused."
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