CHANDIGARH: A high alert has been sounded in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Panthankot in Punjab, after two heavily armed terrorists in army fatigues reportedly snatched a car from a Gujjar which was later found abandoned.
Police sources said that the police got a tip-off by Gujjars (Shepherds) had yesterday late night that a car of person of their community has been reportedly snatched near Bamyal village on the India-Pakistan border by two suspected terrorist who were in army fatigue and were heavily armed. After that immediately an alert was sounded in both Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts.
"One Maskin Ali was going to Fateur village from Bamyal village at 11 PM on Sunday night in his Alto car to drop his relative when two persons in army fatigues stopped him and took away his car after
reportedly threatening him and his relative. Later a frightened Ali informed the police," said a police official and added after that an alert was sounded and the police has been checking the vehicles in both these border districts at key places.
Sources said that today around 2 am, the car was found parked near Fatepur village. The vehicle has been taken to Narot Jaimal Singh Police station where experts have started verifying the claim of Ali.
Confirming that such an information has been received by the police, Senior Superintendent of Police, Pathankot Vivek Sheel Soni said that a search operation has initiated in the area after they got such an information.
He said that he had personally questioned Ali. "Police have been searching the area and have sealed the Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir border and every vehicle is being checked," he said.
Source said that the police got the information within two hours all vital installations in Pathankot including the road leading to the civil airport, Air Force Station, Mamun cantonment and the ammunition dump which is reportedly one of the biggest army storage facility in North India were secured.
Inspector General of Police (Border Range) Surinder Pal Singh Parmar said that a massive manhunt is going in both the districts after the information of two armed terrorists came.
This is the same area where four Pakistani terrorists had snatched the car of Punjab Police SP Salwinder Singh and had later stormed Pathankot Air Base in January 2016, an attack in which seven security personnel were killed before all terrorists were gunned down by security forces. Before in from the same route the terrorists had come and attacked a police station at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur in 2015.
Some time back the state police have provided nine bulletproof tractors in both Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts to deal with any such threat. Punjab Police is the second line of defence after Border Security Force.