Patiala Police take down high alert after ‘suspicious man’ turns to be army personnel

india

Updated: Oct 14, 2019 15:24 IST

Police in Punjab’s Patiala on Monday cancelled a high alert it had issued after it found that the vehicle in reports of “suspicious movement” belonged to an Indian Army personnel, officials said.

Officials had stepped up security across the district and set up special check posts at all exit points after reports of after four men moving suspiciously in two areas of Patiala came in.

Patiala’s senior superintendent of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said after a thorough investigation and search operation, they found the army personnel had come for an official assignment at the army cantonment in the city.

“The senior army officials told the police that the army personnel had come from Ambala in a private car for some work at Patiala,” Sindhu said.

Officials had earlier said that four men in a Hyundai car were first seen at Dhareri Jattan village toll plaza on Patiala-Rajpura road and then near the army cantonment area on Patiala-Sangrur road around 8am.

The action came days after Punjab police had launched the massive cordon and search operation (CASO) in Pathankot and Gurdaspur last Friday following intelligence inputs about a possible terror strike in the state.

Security forces along the Pakistan border in Punjab’s Hussainiwala sector had also reported seeing a drone entering the Indian side from Pakistan late on October 7.

Before that, at least eight drone sorties, carrying a total of 80 kg of arms and ammunition, were sent across the border into Punjab by Pakistan-based Khalistani terror groups between September 9 and 16.