Amritsar, February 27
Mystery shrouds the landing of a hot air balloon on the Pakistan side, a few metres away from the international border. A sentry of the Fatehpur border post under Majitha police district spotted the flying balloon around sun-set yesterday. The BSF authorities immediately informed the Punjab Police.
Mr Parmjit Singh Gill, DIG (border range), however, said a preliminary inquiry conducted by the district police chief of Majitha, Mr R.P.S. Bajwa, said that nobody from the adjoining areas of the Fatehpur border post had confirmed spotting any flying object in the area.
He, however, said the Majitha Police had been directed to conduct a thorough probe into the matter. Mr Gill said the BSF authorities had informed the SHO, Lopoke, that the sentry of Border Security Force had spotted some object landing on Pakistani territory.
It is believed that the balloon could not be detected by radar. However, officials of various intelligence agencies have been on their toes to unravel the mystery.
Though the intelligence agencies do not rule out the possibility of a balloon being used by Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Sing Tara and Paramjit Singh Pyora, involved in the sensational Burail jailbreak, to escape to Pakistan yet it could not be confirmed.
However, it is clear that so far the balloon has never been used by international smugglers for crossing the border.
Another theory, on which the police, the BSF and other agencies were working is that the balloon might have taken off from Pakistani territory adjoining the international border and landed there only after some ‘spy mission’.
The hot air balloon is not available in India.
