Tarn Taran blast mastermind extradited

An NIA team had especially travelled to Vienna to take him in custody; they brought him here with Interpol’s assistance.

New Delhi: Bikramjit Singh alias Bikkar Panjwar, a pro-Khalistan operative and alleged mastermind of the 2019 Tarn Taran bomb blast in Punjab, in which two people died, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) upon his extradition from Vienna, the agency said on Thursday.

The agency filed a charge sheet against nine persons including Panjwar in March 2020, alleging that the accused persons were pro-Khalistan and had formed a terrorist gang under the leadership of Bikramjit Singh. (Representative Photo)

Based on an Interpol red notice, Singh was detained in Vienna on March 22 last year. The federal anti-terror probe agency had been pursuing his extradition from Austria since then. “After the completion of legal proceedings, Linz Regional Court, Austria, extradited the arrested accused Bikramjit Singh,” an NIA spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

An NIA team had especially travelled to Vienna to take him in custody; they brought him here with Interpol’s assistance.

The probe pertains to an accidental explosion on the outskirts of Pandiro Gola village in Tarn Taran around 8pm on September 4, 2019, in which two men, Vikram Singh and Harpreet Singh, were killed and Gurjant Singh was injured. Gurjant, along with Vikram and Harpreet, was allegedly trying to dig out the explosives they had buried in a vacant plot on the outskirts of the village.

The agency filed a charge sheet against nine persons including Panjwar in March 2020, alleging that the accused persons were pro-Khalistan and had formed a terrorist gang under the leadership of Bikramjit Singh.

“The members of the terrorist gang carried out secessionist activities on the ground and on social media to instigate members of the Sikh community to agitate for the secession of Punjab from the Union of India. The terrorist gang chose targets to attack to promote enmity between people of different communities, to create unrest and disturb social and religious harmony and thereby endanger the maintenance of public peace and order in Punjab,” the agency said in March 2020.

Panjwar had allegedly left India in 2018 and was coordinating and planning terror activities from Vienna.

Earlier this month, the NIA brought another wanted person - Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur. Harpreet Singh was the alleged main conspirator behind the December 2021 Ludhiana court bomb blast.