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| The two escaped infiltrators sighted in Punjab border village | | Massive searches on to hunt them down in Kathua and Punjab | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 24: The two infiltrators, who had escaped from the Rajbagh forest nursery following a brief gunbattle with police on April 19 night, were Friday night sighted in a Punjab border village, which adjoins Kathua.
Police parties from Kathua and Punjab's Gurdaspur district had fanned out in the area and a massive combing operation was on to hunt them down, Kathua SSP Gareeb Dass said. The two militants, who had infiltrated from Simble Spol border area of Gurdaspur, were first sighted on April 19 at about 6.55 pm in the border Hariachak village of Rajbagh, Kathua, where after a brief exchange of fire with a police party, they had taken shelter in a nearby forest nursery.
Though police and army had plugged all escape routes from the nursery, the duo had made good their escape. During searches on April 20 morning, cops had found a rucksack, containing incriminating documents, two detonators and food items, including dry fruit.
As a massive operation continued at Hariachak and its adjoining villages, the two infiltrators again sneaked into Kote Patian, Punjab's first village from Kathua side, to avoid contact with police and army.
They spent time in the Punjab village fields till March 21 night when they intercepted Harbhajan Singh, who was going home at Kote Patian in his car, and asked him to show them way to the Jammu-Pathankote national highway.
Harbhajan tactfully told them that the highway was far off from his house and it was not possible for him to guide them to the highway as police and army were scattered everywhere in their search. When the two militants asked him to show the way towards J&K, he said it would be more risky for them to head towards the J&K border
or the highway as there were police and army nakas at every inch of land.
The duo then asked him to bring food and milk for them. The SSP said Harbhajan went home and then came back with food and two bottles of milk for them. They were speaking Punjabi. Fearing threat to his life, Harbhajan did not tell police anything
and went to Amritsar on April 22. On April 23, he called up his wife and asked her if the work in their fields was over. The wife told him that no work was done in the fields as the two militants were still camping in their fields and had been sighted by their servants
several times.
Yesterday, the infiltrators moved towards Ratnava, another border village near Pathankote. At Ratnava, they met a woman and a man at about 11.30 pm, who fainted on seeing them. The SSP said said they met over half a dozen persons in the past three days and asked each of them to guide them to the highway. They were last sighted by villagers at Ratnava village, about six kilometres from the Kathua border, at about 11.30 pm Friday, Gareeb Dass added.
After some villagers informed them about the presence of militants at Ratnava, the Gurdaspur police launched searches for them at about 2.30 am today. The searches on Kathua side were also intensified.He said Harbhajan also returned from Amritsar early this morning and narrated the whole incident to the Narote Jaimal Singh police
station. He said police teams from Kathua and Punjab had launched massive seek and destroy operations in their respective territories. Searches were continuing at the time of going to the print after midnight, but the cops had not been able to find any clue to their
whereabouts, the sources added.
Gareeb Dass said cops had also been deployed all along the highway from Pathankote to Hiranagar. Army had also joined searches.
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