Punjab’s border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot remained on high alert and security forces conducted extensive search operations for the second day on Thursday in the wake of suspicion that some terrorists had sneaked in to carry out an attack.
Locals in a village near Tibri cantonment in Gurdaspur district had on Wednesday reported sighting of two men in army uniform moving in suspicious manner, following which Army and police began the search operation.
Gurdaspur was targeted by Pakistani terrorists in July last year when a police station here was attacked while Pathankot was witness to a terror strike on Air base on last Saturday. Significantly, a day before the Pathankot attack, there were reports of sighting of 4-5 terrorists after a Superintendent of Police was allegedly abducted.
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“The two border districts of Gurdaspur and Pahankot are on high alert,” said Gurdaspur Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Toor on Thursday.
Not ruling out the possibility of terrorists hiding, he said: “We are not taking any chance”.
“Suspicion of possible terrorists is there.... We have cordoned off the entire area and combing operations are going on to sanitise it completely,” the SSP said, while informing that no suspicious movement was noticed adjacent to Tibri cantonment on Thursday.
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“All vehicles and people, in and around the area, are being physically checked,” Mr. Toor said, adding the situation was under control.
A farmer, Satnam Singh, of Pandher village was the first one to make the claim of having seen two men in army fatigues moving in suspicious manner when he was working in the fields, police had said.