Locals spotted 3-4 suspicious men in army fatigues with weapons, search operation on: Pathankot SSP

Pathankot (Punjab) SSP Rakesh Kaushal on Wednesday said that the police team is continuing with the search operation after 3-4 suspicious men were spotted in army fatigues with weapons by locals on Tuesday.

“Launched an operation yesterday, some people spotted 3-4 suspicious men in army fatigues with weapons,” Rakesh Kaushal said. He said that a search operation was launched on Tuesday but the police did not found anything suspicious and they will be searching for more areas.

“Didn't find anything or anyone suspicious here but we need to search some more areas to clear the doubts,” he added. Pathankot was put on high alert on Tuesday following inputs regarding suspicious movement of some people. Further, due to security concerns, a huge search operation has been launched on the Pathankot-Dalhousie road.

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On Tuesday, around 400 security personnel including SWAT team were deployed for conducting the search operation by the Punjab police in the district where terrorist from across the border had struck the IAF airbase in January.

There was a specific input about the presence of some suspicious men roaming around on Pathankot-Dalhousie road. Following this, a massive search operation has been launched here,” Pathankot SSP had said.

Notably, Punjab Police and BSF had jointly carried out search operation and flag march in villages near Indo-Pak border on September 25 to thwart any attempt by intruders coming from across the border.

An alert was also sounded in the border districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur in the wake of terror strike on an army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, terrorists who had sneaked in from across the border had attacked Pathankot air base on the intervening night of January 1-2 this year while Dinanagar in Gurdaspur was targeted on July 27 last year.

The Pathankot attack had claimed the lives of seven security personnel while four terrorists were killed. Three heavily-armed terrorists wearing army fatigues, had stormed a police station in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district last year killing seven persons, including a Superintendent of Police, before they were gunned down during a day-long operation.

(With inputs from PTI)