Punjab: Ex-Akal Takht jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode’s son held; arms seized

JALANDHAR: The son of former Akal Takht jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode was arrested in a midnight swoopdown on Thursday along with explosives and weapons. The arrest of Rode’s son Gurmukh Singh Brar led to the nabbing of another suspect in Phagwara.
Police claimed the arrested men were operatives of banned International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), which is headed by Rode’s brother Lakhbir Singh Rode, said to be hiding in Pakistan, and the recovered arms and explosives were part of consignment sent by "Pakistani spy agency ISI and ISYF to carry out multiple terror attacks in Punjab in its ongoing efforts to revive militancy and disturb peace and communal harmony in the state."
Phagwara arrest led police to Rode’s son
Gurmukh was working in a Punjabi daily and part of the arms seizure was made from his office.
It was claimed in a police press release that Kapurthala cops had earlier arrested Gagandeep Singh of Guru Nanak Pura in Phagwara and recovered one illegal pistol from him."During follow-up investigations, Gagan revealed that the pistol was part of a larger weapons shipment sent from across the border using drones over the last few months. He also said that a major part of the consignment had been hidden by his close friend, one Gurmukh Singh in Jalandhar," police said "Police teams immediately raided the house of Gurmukh and arrested him, leading to seizure of 2 live hand grenades, 1 box of detonators, 2 tubes suspected to contain RDX, one roll of high explosive yellow wire, approx. 3.75 lakh in Indian currency, one licensed .45 bore pistol, 14 Indian passports, one .30 pistol along with 2 magazines. He disclosed that one live tiffin bomb and other explosive material was hidden in the office of Gurmukh Singh, located near Jalandhar bus stand. Police teams recovered 3 live hand grenades, 1 tiffin bomb, 4 Glock pistol magazines and packaging foam material," the press release stated.
Both the accused were booked on Friday under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, Explosives Substances (Amendment) Act, 2001 and the Arms Act.
This is the second case in which people close to Rode have been held in a case of recovery of explosives and arm. In December 2006, 11 kg of RDX was recovered and former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal had claimed that he was the target. On August 8 this year, Amritsar (Rural) police had claimed to have recovered a similar ‘sophisticated tiffin bomb’ from Daleke village under Lopoke police station.
CCTV cameras and recorder taken away
Jasbir Singh Rode said, “Around 12.15am, 20-25 police officials and personnel scaled the outer wall of the house. They knocked on the door and when I asked them the reason for the midnight raid, they said they needed to take away my son Gurmukh Singh. When they saw CCTV cameras, they took these away. Then they went upstairs to Gurmukh’s bedroom and searched it thoroughly for around an hour. They did not find anything, but they said they wanted to confront Gurmukh with another person so they were taking him away."
Rode further said, "Then they came again and came down after some time with two-three carrybags, saying they had found them upstairs. I pointed out that they had already searched his room thoroughly." He alleged that after taking Gurmukh away, police also raided his office and left around 4.15am on Friday.
NIA team in Amritsar
A NIA team arrived in Amritsar on Friday to investigate the recovery of an explosive device in a tiffin box ahead of I-Day. Sources said police and investigation agencies had been looking into the role of Lakhbir Singh Rode, brother of former Akal Takht jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode, who is believed to be living in Pakistan, in the smuggling of weapons into Punjab from Pakistan.
Sources said the NIA team visited villages, including Shohra, Bachiwind and Daleke, from where grenades and pistols were seized. Meanwhile, two alleged militants Amritpal and Sammy were sent into four days’ police remand.