The recent terrorist attack on Punjab's Gurdaspur district that was covered in this HNGN article was only initiated by three men. However, authorities took 11 hours to neutralize the three attackers, whose actions claimed the live of six civilians and three security personnel.
The decision to extend the skirmish into an 11-hour-long battle was done as a deliberate strategy to try and capture at least one of the attackers alive. The authorities were trying to capture another Ajmal Kasab, the gunman behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks who was captured and interrogated, later providing pertinent details of Pakistan and Lashkar-e Toiba's role in the the attack, according to The Times of India.
Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh, the leader of the operation, stated that a significant amount of effort was made in order to catch at least one of the attackers alive, in order for any of the terrorists to be interrogated later.
As a result, the army or the National Security Guard, who would have gone in for the kill immediately, were restrained. The risky operation ended up left in the hands of Punjab Police's SWAT team, which is only five-years-old, reports Sathiyam News.
A source, who has chosen to remain anonymous, stated that the idea was to wear down the terrorists. "There was a limited amount of ammunition with them, and probably no food stocks. So they would have given up if we had managed to prolong the entire operation," the source said.
The decision to restrain the army and the NSG ultimately did not pay off however, as the operation finally concluded after 11 hours, with none of the terrorists being caught alive.
