An unattended bag found at Dalhousie chowk in Pathankot triggered a security scare after it was discovered on 4 May. However, upon being examined, it was found that the bag contained batteries.
A bag containing some batteries was left at Dalhousie chowk by a local trader after he had a fight with someone.Vivek Sheel Soni, Senior Superintendent of Police
The person who left the bag was detained, he said, adding that there was no terror angle behind the incident.
‘Abandoned SUV’ Causes Another Scare in the Area
On 3 May, the Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab were put on high alert after three 'suspicious' people went missing after abandoning a robbed SUV at a village in the area. A massive search operation was launched by police of both the districts to hunt them down.
No arrests have been made so far. The police claim the suspects belonged to Jammu and Kashmir.
We have broadly identified them and we are trying our best to arrest them.Vivek Sheel Soni, Pathankot SSP
Police said that the three men entered the state on Tuesday and sped past a police check post at Behrampur in Gurdaspur district despite being asked to stop. Upon being chased by the police, they abandoned their vehicle at Makhanpur village in Pathankot after covering a distance of 15 km from Behrampur in Gurdaspur.
Police said the suspects stole the SUV from Sambha in Jammu on Wednesday.
Pathankot police searched two villages – Makhanpur and Barmal Jattan – while cops in Gurdaspur conducted search operations in five villages along Ravi River. The search operation in districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur, involving around 300 cops, lasted for about eight hours, they said.
“The search was also conducted in Gujjar area,” Gurdaspur SSP Bhupinderjit Singh said.
The SUV had a fake registration number, police said. Responding to a query, the Pathankot SSP said the three men were not dressed in army or police fatigues, as was the case with terrorists in the 2015 Gurdaspur attack.
Notably, Punjab had witnessed two terror attacks in 2015 and 2016. In the first attack, three heavily-armed terrorists wearing army fatigues, had stormed a police station in Dinanagar town of Gurdaspur district in July 2015 killing seven persons, including a superintendent of police, before they were gunned down during a day-long operation.
In the second attack, four terrorists who had sneaked in from across the border, attacked the Pathankot airbase on the intervening night of 1 and 2 January last year, claiming the lives of seven security personnel.
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