No bulletproof vests for members of the Punjab Police SWAT or Special Weapons and Tactics – they had kneepads but no helmets. The footage shows policemen with clearly no tactical training lobbing grenades at the police station, then turning around and running for cover. One massively overweight policeman tried to rush away, his rifle dangling in his hand. Curious onlookers surround the police post, alarmingly close to the scene of immense danger. Earlier in the day, members of the Special Forces of the Indian Army – some of the most skilled, hardened and well-equipped soldiers in India were deployed to Dinanangar, but the Punjab Police reportedly made it clear they would lead the operations. So India’s best-trained troops were asked to restrict their role to cordoning off the area, a task usually assigned to the police. The footage found a wide ranging response at social networking sites, where an obvious reference was made to all the paraphernaliathat is carried in the convoy of the VIPs in Punjab. Reportedly the father –son duo of Badal family have more than 30 vehicles in their entourage including well secured policemen.

Three gunmen who fought a 12-hour battle near the Pakistan border were Muslim, the Punjab police chief said on Tuesday, contradicting speculation that the attack may have been carried out by Sikh separatists.

“The inspection of the bodies shows that the assailants were Muslims,” said Sumedh Singh Saini, director general of police in the state, speaking to reporters at the police station that came under attack.

Ten people, including four police, three civilians and the three militants, were killed in a prolonged battle that began early on Monday morning, the first of its kind in Punjab in more than a decadeThe attack bore the hallmarks of similar attacks in the neighbouring region of Jammu, which has seen more frequent operations by gunmen hitting security posts in recent years.

Saini did not elaborate why police concluded the gunmen were Muslim and declined to confirm whether or not they were from Pakistan, as some Indian security sources had suggested, reported media from Chandigarh.

He said police had not yet identified the assailants, as they were not carrying any identifying papers or documents. “They had even gone to the lengths of removing the identifying marks on their weapons,” Saini said.

Two GPS devices that police recovered inside the besieged station show a programmed route from the India-Pakistan border to the railway track where five explosives were found on Monday then on to the police station, Saini said, leading police to believe the same group planted the bombs and staged the gun battle. Another report at the Indian TV channels said the first entry in the GPS system was made on the Indian side of the border on July 21, several days before the attack.