Six of terror module held for Pathankot army camp blast
Punjab Police solve Pathankot army camp grenade blast case of November 21, bust module backed by banned International Sikh Youth Federation
Punjab Police on Monday busted a terror module backed by the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a banned terror outfit working at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI, with the arrest of six of its operatives in connection with grenade blast at Pathankot army camp on November 21 last year.
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The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar police recovered six hand-grenades, a pistol, a rifle along with bullets and magazines from them, Punjab director general of police (DGP) VK Bhawra said in a release.
Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep, alias Mantri, Gurwinder Singh, Parminder Kumar, Rajinder Singh, Hapreet Singh and Raman Kumar, all from Gurdaspur district.
In two instances unidentified persons had hurled hand-grenades in Pathankot, one near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021, and the other outside Triveni Dwar of the army’s at Pathankot cantonment on November 21.
Separate cases were registered in this regard at the Pathankot division 2 and division 1 police stations, respectively.
In the statement, DGP Bhawra said that the accused admitted that they were directly in touch with the self-proclaimed chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode and his aides, Sukhmeetpal Singh, alias Sukh Bhikhariwal, and Sukhpreet, alias Sukh, for planning terrorist attacks.
“The recovered hand-grenades, arms and ammunition were pushed in from across the border by Lakhbir Rode and the six accused had been tasked with attacking identified targets which were mainly police and defence establishments and religious places,” he said, adding that the accused persons have also confessed to having lobbed hand-grenades twice in Pathankot.
SBS Nagar senior superintendent of police Kanwardeep Kaur said that the case has been registered under sections of the UAPA, Explosives and Arms Act at the city police station.
The police said that the role of Lakhbir Rode was also found in the killing of Balwinder Singh at Bhikhiwind on October 16, 2020, besides the recovery of the tiffin IED, RDX, arms and ammunition from his relative Gurmukh Singh Rode in Jalandhar in August 2021.