SP abducted by suspected Pak terrorists, alert in Punjab

Pathankot: A high alert was sounded in Punjab on Friday after 4-5 suspected Pakistani terrorists in army uniform abducted and thrashed a Superintendent of Police and his two associates before dumping them some distance away and speeding away in his vehicle on Thursday night.

SP Salwinder Singh has claimed that he and his friend along with an employee of his were coming back after paying obeisance at Narot Jaimal Singh area on Thursday night when five men signaled them to stop, Pathankot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) R K Bakshi said. "As per their statement they were kidnapped and later two of them, including SP, were dumped at Tajpur village near here and third - Rajesh - was thrown out a few distance away with injury marks on his body," the SSP said.

The place of the incident is just about 15 kms from the border with Pakistan. Salwinder said as they stopped their vehicle, all the five men barged inside the vehicle and started beating them. He claimed that one of them took the driver's seat and drove towards Pathankot.

After a while, Singh was pushed out of the vehicle and his two companions were driven away by the men. Later, the men pushed one person out of the vehicle near Pathankot and slit the throat of the third man, who has been identified as Rajesh Kumar, was dropped near Damtal hills on the Punjab-Himachal border after he pretended to be dead.

Police said the vehicle was recovered near Dhira village. Inspector General (Border Range) Lok Nath Angra said high alert has been sounded and search operation was launched to apprehend the culprits.

"They could be Pakistani militants," DIG (Border range) Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said, while informing that the assailants were four in number and wearing army uniform. Asked about reports that the assailants had used the SP's mobile phone to make a call to Pakistan, the DIG did not rule it out. He said the combing operation is under process in entire border area of Pathankot and Gurdaspur, where some Pakistani terrorists carried out an attack some months back.