Punjab Police was on high alert on Friday after the driver of a taxi hired by three unidentified persons was found dead in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
The alert has been sounded as the incident took place three weeks after the terror attack on Pathankot air base.
“We have sounded an alert in our area (Pathankot). We are taking this matter very seriously and we are making efforts to locate the missing taxi,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Pathnakot, R.K. Bakshi, said on Friday.
The taxi driver, identified as Vijay Kumar, a resident of Gaggal village in Kangra district, was found dead on Wednesday at Kalta bridge in Kangra and his taxi missing, the police said. However, the SSP said the white Alto taxi bearing registration number HP 01D 2440 was not hired from Pathankot. “Neither the taxi was hired from Pathankot, nor the incident (recovery of body) has happened here (Pathankot),” he said.
Noting that he had got the matter inquired, Bakshi said three Punjabi-speaking persons had hired the taxi from Gaggal in Kangra district for Pathankot.
“Three Punjabi-speaking people had hired the taxi from Gaggal at 8 pm on January 14. But on Wednesday, the body of the driver was recovered from the subdivision Jawali in Himachal, which is about 40-50 km from Pathankot,” he said.
The taxi driver had been missing since January 14. When he did not respond to phone calls, his family got worried and registered a complaint at Gaggal police station on January 15. The kin met SP Kangra on January 19. The police put the mobile phone of the driver on surveillance and later found his dead body on January 20. Earlier also, cases were reported in Kangra, where taxi drivers were killed and their cars had gone missing.
Seven security personnel were killed and several others injured in the terror strike carried out by militants suspected to be belonging to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. All six terrorists were also killed in the gunfight that continued for three days.