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NIA raids at US Nagar farmhouse for Khalistan terror-gangster nexus
The NIA raids were conducted at a 100 locations in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand
HALDWANI/DEHRADUN: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday raided a house in Udham Singh Nagar district’s Bajpur tehsil in connection with its investigation into a case relating to drug smugglers, gangsters and terrorist groups, a state police officer said. The search was conducted as part of NIA’s raids at over 100 places in six states.
Police said a NIA team started the search at about 6am at a house linked to Gurvinder Singh, who lives in Canada and is currently in the country to visit his family. Gurvinder Singh wasn’t in the house in Ratanpura village and NIA officials “asked his family members about Khalistan terror-gangster network”, a police officer said.
Bajpur circle officer BS Bhandari declined to comment on the case. “We just know that the NIA team is here... We don’t have any other information,” he said.
Police officers said there have been instances of people living in Udham Singh Nagar sympathising with separatist groups of Khalistanis in the past.
Udham Singh Nagar district has a sizable number of the Sikh community who migrated to the region during Partition. Many other relocated in the district during the 1980s and 90s when terrorism was at its peak in Punjab.
In March this year, a 30-year-old man from the district was booked for allegedly uploading a social media post in support of Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh on social media.
A police officer said there have been multiple instances where gangster and terrorists from Punjab flee to the district after committing crimes.
Police said the probe into the murder of a mining trader in Kashipur in April this year led investigators to inputs that the killing was contracted by the Canada-based Arshdeep Dhalla, chief of a group called Khalistan Tiger Force.