The Capital remained on the edge due to absence of any specific terror alert from Central intelligence agencies, even as the Gurdaspur siege played out at a usually sleepy part of the frontier Punjab town throughout Monday.
Borders were sealed, barricades erected around popular commercial areas like markets and malls, and security beefed up in and around the metro and railway network post haste as per blinkered adherence to protocol.
However, sources complained that “not much assistance was forthcoming” from the intelligence establishment.
Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung will be briefed on the situation on Tuesday.
A senior police officer said orders had been issued to all field staff, including the Station House Officers, to patrol their respective jurisdictions all night on Monday.
Special arrangements were put in place at interstate bus terminals with orders to police personnel to be alert and report “anything suspicious” related to passengers or their activities in case of buses and trains headed to Delhi from Punjab and other destinations in the National Capital Region.
“All field staff have been asked to exhibit complete visibility with our vehicles stationed at almost all major intersections — especially on arterial routes,” said an officer.
While Punjab police, which succeeded in neutralising the militants while losing a Superintendent of Police (SP) in the process, officially denied the involvement of pro-Khalistan forces.
However, intelligence sources told The Hindu they had reason to believe otherwise.
The Gurdaspur siege is the first terror attack in a decade in Punjab and a maiden fidayeen one in the State “in as long as many could remember”.
