Security was beefed up all along Jammu-Pathankot National Highway, dotted with vital Army installations, after four suspected 'miscreants' hijacked a passenger taxi, hired from Jammu railway station, near Madhopur in Punjab, late Tuesday night.
The incident came to light in the wee hours of Wednesday after driver of the passenger Taxi, Raj Kumar, raised an alarm soon after he managed to escape after a brief scuffle with the miscreants.
The miscreants had threatened to kill him and dump his dead body in the nearby canal.
After the alarm was raised, Punjab and J&K police, alerted security check points on possible escape routes to track down the hijackers and prevent possible terror strike in the close vicinity of Pathankot air base.
Jammu Railway Station Taxi Operator's Union, Vice-President, Rajvender Singh told reporters in Jammu, "a group of four people had booked a Taxi from Jammu railway station for dropping at Pathankot late Tuesday evening".
He said, "the Taxi was booked in the name of Major Sarabjeet Singh and an advance payment of Rs 3,550 was also made at the booking counter". The Taxi left the parking at around 9:00 pm, he added.
Quoting eyewitness account of the driver of the taxi, Rajvender also claimed, "the driver stopped the Taxi for dinner at Kathua and later they crossed Toll plaza at Lakhanpur-gateway of J&K".
Rajvender Singh also claimed if the men on duty at Toll plaza had checked identity of the passengers they would have been trapped. He said since they claimed they were army men the men on duty permitted them to move on without paying any toll tax.
According to the driver of the Taxi, the passengers sat silently during the entire journey and were not using mobile phones either. According to him, the passengers were speaking typical Punjabi language, not popular in India but on the other side of the border.
After entering the Punjab border the driver again stopped his Taxi for paying passenger tax near Madhopur. Rajvender Singh said it was around the same time the driver was prevented from stepping out of the Taxi and in the ensuing scuffle he managed to ran away from their custody.
Earlier, on Tuesday a heavily armed Pakistani terrorist was shot dead by an ambush party inside the Indian territory in Pallanwala area of Akhnoor. The ambush party had also recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition. The security forces are also investigating the possible linkage between the two incidents by joining the dots.