The men were arrested from East Delhi on Monday. (PTI)The Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Monday arrested five alleged terrorists and claimed to have busted a narco-terror nexus of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and pro-Khalistan militants.
DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah identified the accused as Gurjit Singh and Sukhdeep Singh from Punjab, and Shabir Ahmad Gojree, Md. Ayub Pathan and Riyaz Rather from Kashmir, and said they were in the Capital to collect funds and drugs as part of their larger plan to allegedly execute targeted killings in Delhi and neighbouring states.
The two men from Punjab, police said, are alleged associates of gangster Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal and were allegedly involved in the killing of Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a former CPI(M) member who had been awarded the Shaurya Chakra for taking on militants during Punjab’s days of insurgency in the 1990s. Singh was gunned down at his Tarn Taran home by two unidentified bikers on October 16.
Sources told The Indian Express that intelligence agencies have traced Bhikhariwal to Dubai and are likely to seek his extradition in the coming days.
While claiming a nexus between the ISI and Khalistani groups, police said Gurjit and Sukhdeep were allegedly working on the directions of Bhikhariwal, who in turn worked at the behest of the ISI.
An official claimed the two had allegedly killed Sandhu on Bhikhariwal’s directions. “The duo had taken Rs 1.6 lakh to eliminate Sandhu and also planned to kill Shiv Sena leaders in Punjab. Bhikhariwal was also involved in the Nabha jail break case,” the official claimed.
Police said a team led by Inspectors Sunil Rajain and Ravinder Joshi of the New Delhi Range had received information that the ISI was planning to execute targeted killings in Delhi and neighbouring states, for which they had activated their K2 (Kashmir-Khalistan) desk.
The three men from Kashmir, police claimed, had come to Delhi on the instruction of the ISI to provide funds obtained from drug trafficking to the Punjab-based sharpshooters.
“Around 6.45 am, two cars were spotted in East Delhi’s Shakarpur and they tried to escape after firing at the police team. We also fired in self-defence and they were arrested. A total of 13 rounds were fired from both sides,” said DCP Kushwah.
He said the ISI, along with Pakistan-based Khalistan radicals Harmeet Singh (former chief of Khalistan Liberation Force) and Lakhbir Singh (chief of Khalistan Zindabad Force), were using Bhikhariwal to carry out target killings in Punjab in an attempt to revive militancy there.