Punjab RPG attack: Probe zeroes in on 2 ‘paid’ men

While Mohali SSP Vivek Sheel Soni remained tightlipped, at least two senior police officers said the two men attacked the Mohali building with Charat Singh, a Tarn Taran resident who first recced the area and accompanied them later. The three men remain at large, the officers said.

A senior Punjab police officer said the two men are “gangsters and have criminal antecedents”. This, the officer said, points to “a dangerous cocktail of terror operatives-gangster-drug smugglers” trying to destabilise Punjab. According to the officer, the “perpetrators carried out the attack for the sake of money” and were likely paid.

On May 13, DGP Viresh Kumar Bhawra said the RPG attack on the intelligence wing headquarters was jointly carried out by an “axis of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and gangsters with the backing of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)”.

Bhawra said this while announcing the arrest of six persons in connection with the case. He identified the key conspirator as Lakhbir Singh Landa who hails from Tarn Taran district and has been in Canada since 2017. He said Landa was an associate of Harvinder Rinda who was close to BKI chief Wadhawa Singh and the ISI.

Police have already arrested Jagdeep Kang, who the DGP said was the “local contact” of the module and had accompanied Charat during the recce. The others arrested are Kanwar Bath, Baljit Kaur, Anantdeep Singh Sonu, Baljinder Singh Rambo and Nishan Singh.