U'khand Police issues high alert in Haridwar, Dehradun

The Uttarakhand Police has issued a high alert in Haridwar and Dehradun following reports that a call was made to Kashmir via the satellite phone from the Bhagwanpur area.

"At this point of time, we are not in a position to reveal whether it was used by a tourist, terrorist or any other anti-national element as there is no clarity about this. But the central agencies are on this job. Keeping this in view, we have issued a special alert in Haridwar and Dehradun," Uttarakhand Director General of Police (DGP) M.A. Ganapathy said.

"We have also asked the local police to be alert. Our ATS is also active," he added.

Ganapathy told ANI the satellite phones are sometime used in Uttarakhand, especially by the tourists from Nepal.

"It is not banned in Nepal whereas it is banned in India. At times, the foreigners keep the satellite phones with them unintentionally and talk, so the central agencies track them. As far as Bhagwanpur is concerned, it was informed by the central agency that someone was speaking on the satellite phone from there and that they have picked the signals," said Ganapathy.

"So, the central agency along with the help of state police force tried to track the satellite phone but no signals were received after August 3," he added.

As per reports, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) sleuths tracked the call. The state government, which was later informed about the same, has issued direction to the police force to remain vigilant.