Punjab Police on Monday claimed that they have solved the hand grenade attacks, including the one at Pathankot Army camp, by busting a terror module backed by International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) group with the arrest of its six operatives.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) V.K. Bhawra said that Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar police also recovered six hand-grenades (86 P), one pistol (9mm), one rifle (.30 bore) along with live bullets and magazines from their possession.
“Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep alias Mantri of village Lakhanpal in Gurdaspur, Gurwinder Singh alias Gindi of village Kharal in Gurdaspur, Parminder Kumar alias Rohit alias Rohta of village Kharal in Gurdaspur, Rajinder Singh alias Malhi alias Nikku of village Gunnupur in Gurdaspur, Harpreet Singh alias Dholki of village Gotpokar in Gurdaspur and Raman Kumar of village Ghazikot in Gurdaspur,” he said.
In two instances, some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades at Pathankot— one near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021, while another grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021. Mr. Bhawra said that during the preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that they were directly in touch with 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 arrested accused persons had been tasked for further attacking the pre-identified targets which were mainly police and defence establishments, religious places etc,” he said, adding that the accused persons have also confessed to have lobbed hand grenades for two times in Pathankot.
The SBS Nagar Police have registered the FIR under sections 16,17,18 and 20 of the UA(P) Act, sections 4 and 5 Explosive Substances Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station City Nawanshahr.