The youths, one of whom is a woman, were planning large-scale and targeted killings, and incite communal violence in the border state.
The Punjab Police busted a terror module on Saturday with the arrest of four youths working under the banner of “Khalistan Zindabad”.
The youths, one of whom is a woman, were planning large-scale and targeted killings, and incite communal violence in the border state.
On the hit list were Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, as well as others responsible for incidents of sacrilege, the police said on Tuesday. The arrests have come close on the heels of the arrest of five other members of the group, who were nabbed on May 26 from Bathinda district.
The youth had come together to form the group after being radicalised on Facebook and other social media platforms by individuals based in Pakistan, various West Asian countries and the United Kingdom.
Working in close collaboration with their handlers and associates based in India and abroad, the youth were in the process of mobilising funds, procuring militant hardware — including weapons — and in arranging training for its members when the Mohali Police swooped down on them in an intelligence operation that was conducted over the last two days. The youth — Harbarinder Singh, Amritpal Kaur, Jarnail Singh and Randeep Singh —were remanded to seven days in police custody.
The police have seized weapons and ammunition from them. Investigations revealed that these weapons were intended to be used at an opportune time to carry out the killings of those accused of sacrilege and to kill leaders and members of certain socio-religious organisations in Punjab.