7 military personnel were martyred at the Pathankot air force base in an attack by six terrorists. (Press Trust of India photo)
A search operation was launched in a village in Gurdaspur in Punjab near the border with Pakistan, after locals reported that two men, dressed in fatigues, were acting suspiciously near the cantonment area in Tibri. Sources said that the search revealed no anomaly.
Just 40 km away, seven military personnel were martyred and another 20 injured over the weekend at the massive air force base in Pathankot in an attack by six terrorists from Pakistan.
The operations at the Pathankot base ended earlier today.
On the night of December 31, a police officer from Gurdaspur was on his way home from visiting a shrine near the border with Pakistan when he says he was abducted, along with two companions, by the Pakistani terrorists. Salwinder Singh, Superintendent of Police, says the men were armed with Ak-47s and hijacked his car and snatched his cellphones - Intel officers confirm the phones were later used by the terrorists to call their handlers.
Despite the intercepted calls and the complaint filed by Mr Singh, his case was treated for hours like an armed robbery. The terrorists are believed to have entered the camp in two groups; they began firing indiscriminately in a cafeteria at dawn on Saturday, January 2.
However, interrogators from the National Investigating Agency who have spoken with Mr Singh says his account of his abduction and what followed has revealed deep inconsistencies.