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Punjab: Crackdown on terror network: NIA detains Arsh Dala aide in Ferozepur
Raids underway at 51 locations across six states in three cases related to accomplices of Lawrence Bishnoi, Davinder Bambiha and Arsh Dala gangs
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) detained an aide of Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh, alias Arsh Dala, during a raid in Punjab’s border district of Ferozepur on Wednesday.
The raids are a part of the crackdown on the terror-gangster network operating in India and Canada, officials said. “The NIA is conducting raids at 51 locations across six states in three cases related to associates of Lawrence Bishnoi, Davinder Bambiha and Arsh Dala gangs,” an NIA official said. While Lawrence Bishnoi is in jail, Dala is in Canada and Bambiha was killed in an encounter with Punjab Police in 2016.
Also read: NIA raids in multiple states in Khalistani-gangsters nexus probe
The NIA team caught the aide, identified as Yunas, alias Zora, of Macchi Mandi in Ferozepur, early on Wednesday. “The NIA team got chat details of Yunas with Dala, hence he was taken into custody for interrogation,” an official said. “Yunas was reportedly receiving calls from Dala,” the source said.
The NIA has been cracking down on individual terror outfits and terrorists conspiring to smuggle arms, ammunition and explosives and raising funds to carry out attacks in India. The NIA has found that gangsters having nexus with listed terrorist Dala had entered into a criminal conspiracy to raise funds for the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). They were engaged in smuggling of arms, ammunition and explosives for the KTF from across the border.
Dala, who has been operating from Canada for the last four years, has been guiding and commissioning terrorist acts and also promoting terror, violence and large-scale extortion in India on behalf of the KTF.
So far 16 people have been arrested in the terror-gangster conspiracy case. The NIA is trying to destroy the nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers, and wants to dismantle their infrastructure, including funding channels. (With agency inputs)
