Door-to-door search on in border villages

: The Punjab Police on Saturday intensified its search operation in Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts with cops launching door-to-door search for house owners and tenants under suspicion.

Following intelligence inputs about terror activities in these districts, the police on Friday have launched a massive search operation by deploying additional 5,000 cops in both the districts bordering Pakistan.

Cops enquired the panchayat bodies and local NGOs in ‘identified suspected villages’ for threat perception about any suspicious activity.

Bamyal Sector on Indo-Pak border and Dhar block on Punjab-Himachal border continued to remain under scanner with the policemen carrying out extensive search drive in these areas.

As per senior police officials involved in the operation, similar operations were also carried out in suspected locations in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. However, neither any arrest has been made nor arms and ammunition or contraband was recovered so far, he said.

Jammu and Kashmir border at Madhopur is also being kept under tight vigil and the vehicles entering and leaving the border are being searched and drivers’ IDs are being scanned.

“We are checking every house and taking locals along with us for verification of house owners and tenants,” claimed Gurmukh Singh, one of the cops leading the search.

Pathakot senior superintendent of police (SSP) Deepak Hilori, however, termed the search a routine checking.

After three militants were caught in Lakhanpur(J&K) area and reports of Pakistani drones dropping arms and ammunitions in the border villages of the state came to the fore, the police swung into action, intensifying the security in vulnerable villages of Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts .