260 live cartridges found, panic grips Ludhiana school

With rumours of militants entering the area, the police are conducting massive search operations on a daily basis in Ludhiana, Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

ludhiana, cartridges, live, cartridges at ludhiana school, gurdaspur, gurdaspur attack, latest news

Punjab is already on high alert following Gurdaspur attack and with the rumors of militants entering state- police is conducting massive search operations on daily basis in Ludhiana, Pathankot, Gurdaspur etc. (Source: Express Photo)

An auto-rickshaw driver spotted a bag containing at least 260 live cartridges of carbine bullets outside a school in Ludhiana on Wednesday morning. Police were called and a search was conducted in the area. Police Commissioner P S Umranangal said, “These cartridges are used by poachers and there is very little possibility of militant activity in the area.”

Punjab is already on high alert following the Gurdaspur attack. With rumours of militants entering the area, the police are conducting massive search operations on a daily basis in Ludhiana, Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

The bag of cartridges was spotted outside Kundan Vidya Mandir School at 8.45 am. A team led by ACP Ramneesh Chaudhary reached the spot and conducted a search with a dog squad and metal detectors.

Story continues below this ad

DCP Narinder Bhargav told The Indian Express, “They are carbine bullets, used mostly for hunting. Since there are police checkposts nearby, someone could have thrown the bag there to avoid confrontation. There is no need to panic.”

While parents thronged the school, asking the authorities to send their children home, principal Navita Puri ordered that school would continue.

“We cannot behave like cowards. No holiday will be declared. Immediate police action was taken. I request parents not to believe in rumours,” Puri said. Witnesses claimed that the bag also contained bullets used in AK-47 rifles, but the police denied this.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram