A grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021 at about 9 pm. (Photo: ANI) With the arrest of six operatives behind the hand grenade attacks, including the one at Pathankot Army Camp, the Punjab Police have busted a major terror module backed by the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), an official spokesperson for the police said in Chandigarh Monday.
“The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) police have also recovered six hand grenades (86 P), one pistol (9mm), one rifle (.30 bore) along with live bullets and magazines from their possession,” Punjab DGP V K Bhawra said Monday.
Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep alias Mantri of Lakhanpal village in Gurdaspur, Gurwinder Singh alias Gindi of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Parminder Kumar alias Rohit alias Rohta of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Rajinder Singh alias Malhi alias Nikku of Gunnupur village in Gurdaspur, Harpreet Singh alias Dholki of Gotpokar village in Gurdaspur and Raman Kumar of Ghazikot village in Gurdaspur, the DGP added.
“In two instances, some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades in Pathankot — one near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021 at about 9.30 pm, while another grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021 at about 9 pm. Separate FIRs were registered in this regard,” he further said.
Bhawra said during preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that they were directly in touch with the self-proclaimed Chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode and his close aides identified as Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal and Sukhpreet alias Sukh “for planning terrorist attacks”.
“The entire cache of the recovered hand grenades, arms and ammunition were pushed in from across the International Border by Lakhbir Rode and the arrested accused had been tasked with further attacking pre-identified targets, mainly police and defence establishments, religious places etc,” Bhawra revealed, adding that the accused also “confessed to have lobbed hand grenades two times in Pathankot.”
SSP (SBS Nagar) Kanwardeep Kaur said, “the SBS Nagar Police have registered the FIR dated 07-01-2021 under sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy) and 20 (punishment for being member of terrorist gang) of the UAPA, sections 4 (attempt to cause explosion) and 5 (making or possessing explosives) of the Explosive Substances Act and section 25 (bringing arms/ammunition into India) of the Arms Act at Nawanshahr city police station.”
An official spokesperson said Rode’s role “was also found in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh at Bhikhiwind on October 16, 2020, besides in the recovery of tiffin IED, RDX, arms and ammunition from his relative Gurmukh Singh Rode from Jalandhar in August 2021.”
“Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail was also involved in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh and in the murderous attack on Honey Mahajan at Dhariwal on February 10, 2020. He was deported from Dubai in December 2020. Bhikhariwal provided foot-soldiers, arms and ammunition, logistics, funds, etc, for execution of these crimes,” the spokesperson added.
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