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Punjab Police hunt for duo who fired RPG at intelligence office
Over two months after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the intelligence headquarters in Mohali, the Punjab Police claim to be closing in on the two attackers
Over two months after a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) was fired at the intelligence headquarters in Mohali, the Punjab Police claim to be closing in on the two attackers.
According to a senior police officer, privy to the investigations, the two suspects who carried out the attack on “direct instructions” from Pakistan-based Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Singh Rinda have been identified as Divanshu and Deepak.
While Divanshu belongs to Haryana’s Jhajjar, Deepak is from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Their last known location is also somewhere in UP, said the officer. Rinda had allegedly also used the duo to execute two murders — one in Maharashtra’s Nanded (where the gangter-turned-terrorist’s group is mainly active) and another in Amritsar.
“Although six men were already arrested for the conspiracy, they had no idea about the exact identity of the two attackers, who were specially hired and given online training to fire an RPG by Rinda,” the officer cited above said. The investigating team narrowed in on the two after analysing footage from more than 2,200 CCTVs and researching the data of over 100 hundred mobile towers across the state besides raw information gathered from those arrested and from a messaging app, said sources.
“Special teams of the Punjab Police are still on the hunt of the duo, and around 20 days back, their location was suspected to be in UP,” said the senior officer. The attack was carried out at the Punjab Police’s Intelligence headquarters in Mohali’s Sector 77 around 7:45pm on May 9. However, no one was injured as most of the staff had already left the office by then.
The conspiracy
Police have already exposed how the RPG attack was jointly carried out by the terror group Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and local gangsters with the support of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. The six people arrested so far are accused of involvement in planning and providing local logistics support to carry out the attack.
The key handler has been identified as Canada-based gangster Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa, 33, who provided the RPG, AK-47 and local network of criminals for logistics support to carry out the attack on Rinda’s directions.
Those arrested have been identified as Nishan Singh of Kulla village in Bhikhiwind, Tarn Taran; Jagdeep Singh Kang of Sector 85, Mohali; Kanwarjit Singh, alias Kanwar Bath, 40, of Gumtala in Amritsar; Baljinder Singh, alias Rambo, 41, of Patti, Tarn Taran; Baljit Kaur, alias Sukhi, 50, of Kot Khalsa, Amritsar; and Anant Deep Singh, alias Sonu, 32, of Guru Nanak Colony, Amritsar.
Landa took the help of Nishan and his accomplice Charat Singh of Khemkaran for carrying out the RPG attack and being a local resident, Jagdeep Singh helped Charat in conducting a recce of the intelligence office on the morning of the attack. Charat also accompanied the two trained attackers, and later provided them hideouts. He is on the run.
Later, Charat handed over the attackers to Nishan, who arranged for their stay at Bath and Baljit Kaur’s house in Amritsar from April 27 to May 7. Nishan, who was arrested by the Faridkot police on May 11 under the Arms Act, retrieved the RPG from the earmarked location on the Kulla-Patti road on Landa’s directions.
Baljinder Rambo, who was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances Act and is a drug addict, had delivered the AK-47 to Charat and his two aides on Nishan’s directions. Anant Deep is a brother-in-law of Nishan and used to assist him in providing logistics support, according to the information shared by police earlier.
