ISI trying to set up new terrorist body in Punjab: Police

Patiala: A day after busting a terror module backed by Pakistani agency ISI in Patiala, the police on Friday claimed that the investigations had thrown up more evidence pointing to neighbouring country’s hand in setting up a new terrorist organization in Punjab to disturb the law and order.
Patiala SSP M S Sidhu said it had come to the fore that the ISI had lured Shabnamdeep Singh, who was arrested on Thursday from the Lahori Gate area along with a hand grenade and a pistol, after he was spotted by the Pakistani agency operative Jawed Khan for liking ‘Referendum 2020’ posts on the social media.

It was the ISI that introduced Shabnamdeep to six or seven other individuals, including Gopal Singh Chawla, who is a member of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), and Nihal Singh, who is associated with the US-based advocacy group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), and had sent him money to carry out the grenade attack in crowded places in Patiala.

The investigators have identified two aides, who were to help Shabnamdeep in carrying out the terrorist attack in Patiala. One of them, Gursewak Singh, was recently arrested by the police in connection with the Rs 10 lakh petrol station robbery at Nabha and was already in their custody. The other is a relative of Gursewak and police teams are yet to arrest him.

The SSP said they had received intelligence inputs that a new terror group Khalistan Gadhar Force (KGF) had been formed in the state and it was trying to strike at Patiala ahead of the festive season. A case in this regard was registered at the Lahori Gate police station on the evening of October 31 following which they had started tracing the accused.

He said from the backpack that Shabnamdeep was carrying, they recovered stickers of the Khalistan Gadhar Force and its letterheads along with some letterheads of Khalistan Liberation Force and Babar Khalsa International. Both Shabnamdeep and Gursewak had got these stickers and letterheads printed from a printing press at Cheeka in Kaithal district in Haryana and the cops have incorporated the name of the printing press owner as an accused.

The SSP revealed that Shabnamdeep had recently received a sum of Rs 50,000 in the bank account of his sister and two separate installments of Rs 25,000 each through wire transfer from foreign countries, but the source was yet to be ascertained. Whether his sister is also involved is still part of the investigation, the SSP said.