Itanagar, Jan 9 : More than 24 hours after five unidentified youths snatched Rs 33 lakh from SBI officials near the ATM at Bank Tinali here, police are groping in the dark, clueless.
Security forces tod-ay fanned out into the jungles of Bodo militants-infested Holongi area bordering Assam and in and around Itanagar and Naharlagun.
The police also launched a search on the 55-km stretch between Banderdewa and Holongi on National Highway 52, stepping up security at all the checkpoints — Banderdewa, Holongi, Kimin and Gumto.
Two battalions of Arunachal Pradesh police forces from the Police Training Centre at Banderdewa, nearly 30km from Itanagar, trooped into the nearby jungles bordering the Chengmara, Durpong and Chessa areas which are used as corridors by Ulfa, National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and criminal gangs.
Deputy inspector-general of police, West, Tashi Lama, led the police team. To prevent the culprits from fleeing, the police also sealed all the adjoining areas of Papum Pare district, including Poma Jotey, July village and Yupia. However, their efforts had failed to bear fruit till the time of filing of this report.