Two terrorists, Maan Singh and Sher Singh, were arrested by the BSF as they were trying to pick the consignment.
Punjab Police on Saturday arrested three men and claimed to have busted a terror module that they said had direct links with Pakistan’s ISI-backed banned terror outfit International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). The arrested men — Gurdial Singh, Jagroop Singh and Satwinder Singh — were allegedly trained and tasked to carry out terror attacks and target various “anti-panthic and anti-Sikh forces/individuals” by Lahore-based ISYF chief Lakhbir Rode, and another alleged Khalistani terror operative Harmeet Singh alias Happy alias PHD, the police said.
Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that a part of the consignment of arms and ammunition recovered by the BSF on May 21 close to the International Border in Amritsar, was supplied by the ISYF. Two terrorists, Maan Singh and Sher Singh, were arrested by the BSF as they were trying to pick the consignment.
According to police spokesperson, while Gurdial is from Road Majara in Hoshiarpur district, Jagroop and Satwinder are from Chandpur Rurki in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District. A .32-bore pistol with one magazine and 10 cartridges and a .38-bore revolver, with seven cartridges was recovered from them. While Gurdial and Jagroop were arrested from their homes, Satwinder was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Balachaur sub-division.
The police spokesperson said Gurdial was the chief operative of this terror module and was introduced by Germany-based Balvir Singh Sandhu to Lakhbir Rode, who reportedly stays at an ISI provided safehouse in Lahore cantonment. Gurdial had met Rode several times during his visits to Pakistan, as part of religious jathas, in the past 6-7 years, he said.
The police said that during his last visit to Pakistan in November 2016, Gurdial had arranged a visa for Jagroop, who then travelled to Lahore with a jatha. During interrogation, the duo said that Jagroop met Rode and Harmeet through Balvir during his stay in Lahore (November 12-21, 2016).
Jagroop, the police said, had confessed that he was taken to the ISYF chief blindfolded at an undisclosed location and imparted four-day training by the ISI in handing AK-47 rifle and smaller weapons. He was also trained in techniques of sabotaging railway tracks by tampering fish-plates, the police said.
