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KZF militants killed in U.P’s Pilibhit: Militants stayed in Bareilly for hrs using encrypted apps, says police
The Pilibhit police had sent three mobile phones recovered from the slain militants—Gurwinder Singh, 25, Virendra Singh alias Ravi, 23, and Jasan Preet Singh alias Pratap Singh, 18, all residents of Gurdaspur, Punjab—for forensic examination.
Mobile locations and internet activity retrieved from the device of one of the three Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) militants, gunned down in a police encounter in Pilibhit’s Puranpur on December 23, have revealed key details about the movement of pro-Khalistan groups in Uttar Pradesh’s Terai region. Senior police officials confirmed on Monday that the militants stayed for several hours in Bareilly before heading to Pilibhit.
The Pilibhit police had sent three mobile phones recovered from the slain militants—Gurwinder Singh, 25, Virendra Singh alias Ravi, 23, and Jasan Preet Singh alias Pratap Singh, 18, all residents of Gurdaspur, Punjab—for forensic examination. The forensic report indicated that only one phone was operational before the encounter, while the other two had been switched off since the trio’s attack on a police outpost in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district on December 18.
“The phone’s location and net activity indicate that the militants stayed in Bareilly for several hours, where locals arranged their hotel stay and transport to Puranpur, Pilibhit,” a senior police official said. He added that the lack of normal phone calls from the device suggests the militants used encrypted mobile applications to communicate with local contacts and handlers abroad, including in Greece and England.
The Pilibhit police have deployed a team to Bareilly to trace individuals who provided shelter and logistical support to the militants. “We have mapped the militants’ route from the Gurdaspur attack to their arrival in Pilibhit, using data retrieved from the phone,” the official said. “They travelled from Gurdaspur to Amritsar, then moved to Delhi, reached Bareilly, and finally arrived in Puranpur on the night of December 20.”
According to the investigation, the militants reached Bareilly in the afternoon of December 19 and stayed there for several hours. CCTV footage from the Harjee Hotel on the Puranpur highway shows the trio arriving at 8 pm on December 20 and leaving around 9:30 pm the next day. Their whereabouts between their departure from the hotel and their encounter with police on December 23 are still under investigation.
The militants had travelled over 700 kilometres from Amritsar to Bareilly via Delhi, a journey that took around 14 hours. Police believe they used private transport, aided by local supporters, to avoid detection while carrying weapons. The Pilibhit police recovered two AK-47 rifles, two Glock pistols, 123 cartridges, and eight bullet shells, significantly disrupting the terror module’s capacity to launch further attacks.
Pro-Khalistan supporters in the Terai region, including Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly, and Budaun, are now under the scanner of the U.P. anti-terror squad (ATS) and the national investigation agency (NIA). Security agencies are working to dismantle the network of sympathisers who have been providing shelter and logistical support to extremists.
“We are trying to completely unearth the pro-Khalistan network in the Terai belt including Pilibhit, Bareilly, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur and Budaun districts,” a senior state police official said. The region has a significant population of Sikh migrants from Punjab, who settled there after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Terai belt has long been considered a safe haven for Sikh extremists.
In June 2024, authorities sounded an alert in the Terai region after posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a key figure in the Khalistan movement, and other separatists were found outside gurdwaras in Pilibhit and Bareilly. The police are now investigating whether the recent militant movements are connected to these earlier incidents.
