Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
DINANAGAR: The alertness and bravery of a bus driver was crucial in saving several lives during today’s terror attack in Gurdaspur in Punjab which left eight people dead.
Nanak Chand did not panic when a group of terrorists fired at his bus; instead sources said, he swerved, and drove away to a hospital, delivering six injured people for urgent attention.
He also called up the police to inform about the incident.
“There were 75 passengers in the bus. I thought that it was important to save their lives. I did not stop the bus,” Nanak Chand told journalists.
The incident took place around 5.30 a.m. today.
Villagers at a railway station in Parmanand also played a huge role in averting a major disaster – they spotted spotted five bombs wired to a small bridge just minutes before a passenger train was to travel over it. The train was stopped 200 metres from the bombs.
The army and bomb disposal squads were called to defuse the bombs.
The terror attack began at 5.30 am when a group of terrorists shot at Nanik Chand’s bus, then car-jacked a Maruti 800 and drove to a police station in the town of Dinanagar, where they spent nearly 11 hours shooting back at security forces.
The victims include 5 policemen and 3 civilians.
At 5 pm, all the terrorists were declared killed.Sources said they appear to belong to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror group that’s based in Pakistan and orchestrated the attacks in Mumbai in 2008.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said India will give “a befitting reply” if it turns out that the terrorists were from across the border.
