The image of three men who hired the taxi from Pathankot, which is missing
A missing taxi and its driver, found mysteriously dead some 500 km away, have triggered a new alert by the police ahead of the January 26 Republic Day celebration.
The police say the white Alto taxi was hired on January 14 by three young men who wanted to go to Pathankot, where the Air Force base was attacked by terrorists earlier this month. The body of the driver, Vijay Kumar, was found on Wednesday in Kangra in Himachal Pradesh, not far from where the taxi was hired.
Two other taxi drivers had quoted a higher price and were perhaps saved by that. "They looked like they had come from outside, they had bags on their backs," said Manish, one of the drivers.
The car has not been found and the men, who reportedly spoke in Punjabi, are also missing.
This is the second missing vehicle since a police officer's car with a beacon was stolen on Wednesday.
The Delhi Police had tweeted that the car was hired in Pathankot. The tweet also had images of the men who hired the taxi with the registration number HP01D2440."We are dealing with the Himachal incident very seriously," said Delhi Police chief BS Bassi.
The SUV of a senior border police officer, which was stolen from Noida near Delhi, is also yet to be found. The brand new Tata Safari was stolen two days ago from the home of Anand Swarup, the Inspector General of the Indo Tibetan Border Police or ITBP.
The missing vehicles have caused alarm weeks after the January 2 Pathankot attack, in which the stolen car of a police officer played a role. The blue beacon on the Mahindra XUV car of police officer Salwinder Singh helped the terrorists get past several check posts a day before the attack in which seven soldiers were martyred.
Police across India are on guard ahead of Republic Day, which will feature French President Francois Hollande as Chief Guest. The National Investigation Agency has arrested 14 terror suspects, believed to be sympathisers of the ISIS, from across the country.
A letter reportedly from Chennai and warning against President Hollande's visit was delivered on January 11 to the French consulate in Bengaluru.
French envoy Francois Richier said today he is "not sure if the threat is credible though security is unprecedented in Delhi given the overall threat perception."
A recent review of security, customary ahead of Republic Day, was led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and officials concluded that an ISIS threat "is very real".