Chandigarh Police probing Khalistani hand in Model Jail bomb scare
Having launched an investigation into the discovery of a bomb outside Model Jail in Sector 51 on Saturday, police are probing whether it was planted by Khalistani militants.
The Model Jail holds some Khalistani terrorists, including Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) members Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, who were convicted of the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh. Others held guilty in the case, including Lakhwinder Singh Lakha, Shamsher Singh and Gurmeet Singh, are also imprisoned here.
Working on the possibility of an attempt to break out some of these prisoners from the jail, Chandigarh Police have sent out a team to Nawanshahr in Punjab, where police had recently arrested two aides of Khalistani terrorist Harinder Singh Rinda for the Ropar police post blast last month.
On March 9, the eve of the 2022 Punjab assembly election result day, the accused had tried to blow up a police post at Kalma Mor in Ropar on the Nurpur Bedi-Nangal road. No loss of life was reported, but a side wall of the police post was damaged.
With the duo’s arrest, police had also recovered a tiffin bomb hidden by them in an abandoned well near their hideout in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district. Rinda is said to be in Pakistan in ISI’s shelter.
Later, on Sunday, the anti-gangster task force of Punjab Police had also arrested a BKI terrorist, Charanjit Singh, alias Patialavi, from Mohali’s Dera Bassi. Wanted in Ludhiana’s Shingar Cinema bomb blast in 2007 and other cases, he was evading arrest since 2010.
Speaking about this, UT senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said, “Police teams have gone to question the accused in the Ropar police post blast case. Till now nothing concrete has come out of it.”
The SSP added that they suspected the involvement of some Khalistani organisations in planting the bomb near the jail, but it had yet to be confirmed.
Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, along with Jagtar Singh Hawara, who is now imprisoned in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, had earlier escaped from Chandigarh’s Model Jail after digging a tunnel in 2004.
Meanwhile, security at the Model Jail has been amped up and police also searched the barracks of the prisoners, but recovered nothing suspicious.
After a National Security Guard (NSG) team from Haryana’s Manesar defused the bomb on Sunday, they took samples for inspection. A detailed report in this regard is awaited.
Police officials said prima facie, the bomb appeared to be made of RDX, but the exact chemical composition and quantity was unclear.
Meanwhile, the road, where the bomb was found, was reopened for traffic on Monday, but police presence continued at the spot.
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