Police launch massive search op in Pathankot for suspicious men

A massive search operation has been launched by the Punjab Police to track down three persons who have gone missing after abandoning a robbed SUV at a village here.

Police said the three had been directed to stop at a checkpost at Berhampur in the district, but instead sped through it. The cops then gave chase, but found the vehicle abandoned at Makhanpur village near Bamiyal here. Pathankot SSP Vivek Sheel Soni today said the SUV was robbed by the suspects from Sambha in Jammu yesterday.

"We have launched a search operation to trace them," Soni said. Around 200 policemen have been deployed near Mankahnpur village, police said. Nothing suspicious was found from the vehicle, police said, adding that it has now been seized. The SUV had a fake registration number, they said.

The SSP said the three were not dressed in army or police fatigues, as was the case with the terrorists in the 2015 Gurdaspur attack.

Three heavily-armed terrorists wearing army fatigues, had hijacked a car and stormed a police station in Dinanagar town of Gurdaspur district in July 2015. They killed seven persons, including a Superintendent of Police, before they were gunned down during a day-long operation.

Last year, four terrorists who had sneaked in from across the border had attacked the Pathankot air base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2, claiming the lives of seven security personnel.