Punjab police arrest man in contact with ‘foreign-based extremists’; recover pistol

The Punjab police said the accused was arrested when he was planning to commit a crime at the behest of ‘foreign-based extremists’ and recovered a pistol along with other ammunition from his possession

: The Punjab police has arrested a man, who has been in contact with some “foreign-based extremists” and had received a big consignment of weapons from them to execute criminal activities on their instructions, from Kathunangal area here.

Punjab police arrest man in contact with ‘foreign-based extremists’; recover pistol

Acting on a tip-off, the state special operation cell (SSOC) wing of the Punjab police arrested Amarinder Singh alias Ginni of Bath village in Tarn Taran at a barricade in Kathunangal while coming from his village on Thursday evening and recovered a .9 mm pistol, two magazines and 20 live rounds from his possession.

Police said the accused was arrested when he was planning to commit a crime at the behest of his foreign-based handlers.

“Our investigation so far hints that the foreign-based entities may be some radical extremists, who might be inciting Amarinder. But we will be able to tell exactly once our investigation is completed,” an SSOC official said.

Sources said a case against Amarinder has been registered under Sections 25 of the Arms Act and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the SSOC’s Amritsar police station.

“The secret informer told the police that Amarinder has been in contact with several foreign-based entities, and on their instructions, he has also received a big consignment of weapons. Amarinder has been planning to commit a crime on the instructions of his foreign-handlers,” said a source.

“Amarinder was using the Telegraph application in his mobile phone to establish contact with his foreign-based entities. Our investigation so far has found that Amarinder had been receiving weapons from his foreign handlers. A .9mm pistol he had received a few days ago was smuggled further. Our technical teams are working to ascertain the identity of the foreign-based entities by using the mobile numbers from Amarinder’s phone,” an SSOC official, on the basis of anonymity, said.

He said, “Amarinder has confessed that he had received the weapons free of cost and wanted to use them as per the further instructions of the handlers. He also wanted to attack his own relatives, who have been at loggerheads with him. We suspect that Amarinder has received more arms and ammunition from his foreign-based handlers.”

On April 18, the Amritsar SSOC had arrested two close associates of gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh, alias Arsh Dalla, and claimed to have thwarted possible efforts of foreign-based anti-national elements to disturb the peace and tranquillity of Punjab.