Amritsar: A car was snatched in Pathankot late on Tuesday evening setting alarm bells ringing across the border district. Security forces putt up barricades on all entry and exit points. The episode came as a grim reminder of the terror attack at the Panthonkot airbase in January, as well as, another strike by militants in Gurdaspur district in July last year.
In January, the terrorists had hijacked the car of Punjab Police SP Salwinder Singh to reach the IAF station and carry out an attack in which seven people were killed. The state police had to face much criticism for not acting on the SP’s information immediately. Even attackers in Gurdaspur had snatched a car from a passerby to reach Dinanagar police station.
Talking to TOI, police border zone IG Lok Nath Angra on Tuesday late evening said, “It appears to be an incident of only car snatching but we are looking at it from all possible angles.” Giving details, he said that three persons snatched the Ford Fiesta of Pathankot resident Gaurav Pathania at gunpoint near Vishal Dhaba on Mallikpur-Sujanpur Road at around 6.30pm. Pathania reported the incident to police control room following which senior police officers rushed to spot to investigate the matter.
Senior police officials told TOI that two of the three were turbaned Sikhs while the third person seemed to be a Hindu. Also, they were armed with just a pistol and not the automatic AK47s that are generally used by terrorists.
Pathankot SSP R K Bakshi said that investigations were on and that the culprits were still at large.
SOURCE: goo.gl/mq5cb3