PATHANKOT: The border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot have been put on a high alert after the police claimed that they had reports that two persons, believed to be suspected terrorists, had entered Pathankot.
A villager of Kot Bhathian hamlet, located near the International Border (IB), rang up the control room around midnight and claimed that two masked men, both heavily armed, had forced their way inside his farmhouse. “They pointed a gun at my head and asked me to prepare dinner. Once they had dinner, they left my house and moved towards Pathankot,” the man told the police. His identity is not being disclosed by the cops.
Pathankot SSP Suhail Qasim Mir immediately convened a meeting of senior officers. Gurdaspur police chief Harish Dayama, too, reached the police lines and held a meeting with all SHOs of Gurdaspur district.
Checking had been intensified at railway stations and bus stands of Gurdaspur, Dhariwal, Dinanagar and Pathankot. Vehicles on the Gurdaspur-Pathankot-Jammu National Highway were being checked. The Batala police have also been put on alert.
The Army and BSF have been informed of the developments. The Mamun cantonment and the Pathankot Air Force station, too, have been secured.
In 2015, three militants had made their way into the Dinanagar police station. At that time the IB had claimed they had infiltrated into India from Bamial village in Pathankot district. Seven persons, including an SP rank officer, were killed before the terrorists were neutralised. Six months later, four Pakistan-backed militants laid siege to the Pathankot Air Force station. These militants, too, had made their way in from Bamial. Ten people were killed before the NSG killed all the four insurgents.