Lucknow, Oct 5: The Line of Control (LoC) between Pakistan and India may be a good several hundred kilometres from here, but the escalation of hostilities between the two tions has sent the Uttar Pradesh Police into a tizzy — over 350 “missing” Pakistanis. This, according to official sources, is the number of Pakistanis who entered the state over the past few years on bofide visas but have since gone missing — or at least there is no record of them having left the state. Hitherto treated in a cavalier manner, the police here is dusting off its files now that the threat of Pakistani retaliation in the wake of the Indian Special Forces’ “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control (LoC) looms large. Sources said that there has been a terse warning “from the top” to take the matter with utmost seriousness and the local intelligence units (LIUs) have been pressed into service to find the present locations of the missing people.
An officer said that while many of the missing would be harmless, police fear that some of these men and women could be part of covert sleeper terror cells, used by non-state actors in Pakistan to trigger terror incidents in India. Home Secretary Mani Prasad Mishra refused to comment citing the “sensitivity” of the matter, but said the “intelligence set-up was working and all information gathered has been shared with the concerned authorities”. Additiol Director General of Police (Law and Order) Daljeet Chowdhary said there had been no laxity on the part of the police and the force has been sharing information with the intelligence agencies from time to time.
According to information given of those who have gone missing, the maximum number of Pakistanis whose “exit points” have not been recorded in intelligence offices are from the state capital Lucknow, where 34 are untraceable. Senior Home Department officials said that intelligence officers have been sensitised on the issue, adding that there was no need for panic or alarm. “We are aware of the situation and doing all what is necessary,” an official said. (IANS)