Villagers report suspicious movement in Gurdaspur; Army launches search op

Ravi Dhaliwal

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Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, January 6

Nearly 1,000 personnel of Army and Punjab Police have converted Pandher village, 8 km from here and 2 km from the Tibri cantonment, into an impregnable fortress following reports that two armed persons had gone into hiding in a 15-acre sugarcane field.

A massive search operation was in progress and neither the army nor the police officers were willing to comment on it. Two Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team also reached the spot.

“The threat is for real. It is not a hoax. We have sounded an alert throughout the state,” an SSP-level officer said.

Even as NIA Director General Sharad Kumar was holding a series of meetings in the Air Force complex, regarding the terrorist attack at the Pathankot IAF base, 35 km from here, two suspicious men sneaked into the village in broad daylight.

The villagers said they had sighted a “some people wearing military uniforms going into sugarcane fields.” The army has vacated 500 houses in Pandher and the adjoining villages of Bhulechak and Babbehali.

The terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base and Dinanagar police station too were wearing army fatigues.

“The fact that the cantonment area is just 2 km away has added to our worries. We cannot take chances. More forces are being requisitioned,” said SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor.

DGP Suresh Arora, who returned to Chandigah today from Pathankot, was being regularly updated about the developments by the SSP.

“At this point in time, we cannot say how much ammunition militants are carrying,” said a senior officer.

Although no firing was reported till the time of filing the report, senior officers were repeatedly claiming that it was “not a hoax and the threat was for real”. The exact number of suspects could not be ascertained even by officials.

Senior officers of the cantonment, Deputy Commissioner Dr Abhinav Trikha, Additonal DGP Hardeep Singh Dhillon, SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor and other officials of the district administration were camping in the area.

Additional forces from Gurdaspur and the neighbouring police districts of Batala, Amritsar and Hoshirapur had been requisitioned. Buses carrying policemen could be seen going from the police lines to the village.

All roads leading to and from the village have been sealed. There was no traffic movement on the normally busy 22-km Gurdaspur-Mukerian road, on which Tibri cantonment is situated.