Security forces on high alert in Punjab’s frontier

Chandigarh: The Punjab’s frontier security forces were on high alert in Pathankot, district Gurdaspur, after a senior police officer said he and his associates were seized by five armed men in army fatigues.

Talwinder Singh, a superintendent of police, said he and his associates were going in his multi-utility vehicle to a religious shrine on Thursday night when they were signalled to stop by the five men.

The incident took place near Dinanagar town, where three terrorists from Pakistan launched an attack in July last year. It lies about 280 km from Chandigarh.

Punjab Police sources said the entire area, not far from the border with Pakistan and which adjoins Jammu and Kashmir, was being searched.

Intelligence agencies were also trying to verify the incident and another in which the body of an Innova driver was found in a nearby area, the sources said.

The officer was being questioned by intelligence agencies and other police officers.

Talwinder Singh told the police that the five men forcibly got into his vehicle and started beating him and his two companions.

He claimed that one of the men took charge of the vehicle, which had a blue beacon on its roof, and drove towards Pathankot. After some distance, the officer was pushed out of the vehicle.

The other two companions were also pushed out later, one after the other.

One of the two, Rajesh Kumar, was allegedly attacked by the armed men and his throat was slit. He has been admitted to a hospital in Pathankot.

The abandoned XUV was on Friday morning recovered by police near Akalgarh village near Pathankot.

Police on Friday recovered the body of an unidentified man, believed to be the driver of an Innova car, about 30 km from Pathankot.

Police sources said investigations were being done to know if the same men who abducted the officer and his companions had killed the driver too.

Terrorists from Pakistan launched a terror attack on Dinanagar town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district on July 27, leaving seven people dead, including a senior police officer.