NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s special cell has carried out an operation leading to the detention of most wanted gangster and ISI henchman Sukhmeet Pal Singh, alias Sukh Bhikhariwal, in Dubai, with assistance from UAE police, top sources have told TOI.
Simultaneously, the special cell arrested two Punjab-based alleged assassins — who were in the end stage of executing the killing of a right-wing leader in the capital — along with three Kashmir-based Hizbul Mujahideen operatives from east Delhi early on Monday. Now, the intelligence establishment at the highest level is coordinating the deportation of Bhikhariwal.
‘ISI plan to use Khalistan, Kashmir links exposed’
Bhikhariwal, sources said, was nabbed from a flat in Dubai after his location was confirmed by Delhi Police's sources deployed on ground. The cops said that this operation, which shows the growing cooperation between the two countries, has exposed the Pak spy agency's new plan of trying to use the Khalistan and Kashmir networks to revive extremism in Punjab and other parts of the country. In the past three years, UAE and Indian intelligence had coordinated on the arrest of AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel and Rajiv Saxena, among others.
While officials in Delhi Police remained tight-lipped on the UAE operation, they elaborated on the operation in Delhi saying they had averted a "slew of targeted killings" in the capital with these arrests.
The cell had kicked off an operation in April this year after receiving inputs about targeted killings being planned and executed by the ISI through Bhikhariwal. "While these inputs were being developed, multiple teams were dispatched to Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand to collect specific information with active coordination and cooperation of central intelligence agencies," said DCP (special cell) Pramod Kushwaha.
Last month, police commissioner S N Shrivastava had formed a crack team to carry out the operation. The team comprised encounter specialist ACPs Lalit Mohan Negi and Hriday Bhushan and inspectors Sunil Rajain, Ravinder Joshi and Vinay Pal to execute the last phase of the operation.
A few days ago, an intercepted chatter suggested that Bhikhariwal had instructed his sharpshooters to commit another targeted killing of a right-wing leader in Delhi on the instructions of ISI. Bhikhariwal had further tasked them to meet some persons from Kashmir in east Delhi near the Ramesh Park bus stand, Shakarpur. The suspects, belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen, were to hand over cash to the assassins. Cops started to look out for a car with a J&K registration number.
"Accordingly, a trap was laid. Around 6.45am, two cars were spotted near the place of information. The advance team immediately moved to verify the suspects. Sensing police presence, the suspects tried to flee by firing at the police party," DCP Kushwaha said. The police party too fired in self-defence. Both sharpshooters were nabbed along with their three Kashmiri associates.
"The Kashmiri men were found in possession of 2kg of fine-quality heroin and Rs 1 lakh in cash. Three sophisticated pistols of different make were recovered from the two sharpshooter," Kushwaha added. The men from Punjab were identified as Gurjit Singh, alias Bhaa, and Sukhdeep Singh, alias Bhura, while the Kashmiri suspects were identified as Shabbir Ahmed, Ayub Pathan and Riyaz Rather.
Pathan is claimed to have disclosed that he was working for Hizbul Mujahideen and his handler was his cousin, Abdul Majeed Khan, who is at present based in Rawalpindi and is a senior operative of Hizbul.
Khan had introduced him to a Pakistan-based operative, codenamed "Sadakat", who is handling channelling of funds to India through narcoterrorism. "Sadakat tasked them to receive a consignment of narcotics and deliver it to his other contacts in Punjab,” DCP Kushwaha added.