Even as an alert is on following reports of the sighting of two more suspects by villagers in Pathankot near the Indo-Pak border, the combing operation at the Air Force station here was declared completed on Friday.
Punjab Police and BSF has started a search operation in the area where the two suspects were spotted. Seven days after six terrorists struck, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts remained on high alert. Two days ago, two suspicious men in Army fatigues were reported seen in Gurdaspur area.
“The combing operation at the Air Force station is over,” a senior IAF official said, adding the entire area has been sanitised. The sanitisation operation had been going on for the last three days ever since the six terrorists were gunned down.
The operation to ensure that no terrorist was hiding was carried out jointly by Army, NSG and IAF’s Garud commandos. The official said the IAF was “sharing and supporting” the NIA with the inputs. The NIA has investigated the personnel of Defence Services Corps (DSC) in connection with the terror attack.
However, Pathankot and Gurdaspur are still on high alert in the wake of claims by locals in a village that they had seen two men in Army fatigues moving in a suspicious manner on Wednesday. The Army and police, including the SWAT commandos, are carrying out search and combing operations in these two districts, particularly near the Tibri Cantonment area of Gurdaspur, where the suspected terrorists are believed to have been sighted.
Pathankot SSP RK Bakshi said all vehicles and individuals in Pathankot and nearby villages and towns are being thoroughly checked as a precautionary measure. “We are not taking any chances,” he said.
The Army is using drone helicopters to locate possible terrorists and pressed into service bullet-proof vehicles, officials said. The Army has installed flood lights and the police is conducting door-to-door searches to flush out the suspected terrorists, they said. Punjab Police have pressed into service the SWAT and dog squads are also assisting in the combing operation, officials said.
DIG Border Range Vijay Kunwar Partap Singh said local residents need not worry and advised them not to create panic because police along with Army was deployed for their safety.
Gurdaspur Police with the help of Army has sealed the area in which there is standing sugarcane crop in the field.