Punjab route? Cops probing

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

The Punjab Police have launched a probe on whether the three nabbed terrorists had travelled through Punjab even as BSF officials said they did not discount the possibility of the consignment having made its way from Pakistan via Punjab border.

Significantly, the terrorists were travelling in a truck believed to have “originated” from Amritsar though it carried a JK number plate. DGP Dinkar Gupta said officials of the State Special Operation Cell had joined the investigation at Kathua to ascertain the route taken by the terrorists. 

Punjab has put in place a second line of defence along the border, besides raising several barricades on roads. The DGP said it was too early to reach any conclusion. The area around Gurdaspur and Pathankot had witnessed two attacks by terrorists in 2015 and 2016 when they struck at the Dinanagar and Pathankot IAF bases. The BSF says the possibility of arms having been smuggled across the border along Pathankot-Kathua axis cannot be ruled out.