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Bikkar Panjwar, key accused in 2019 Tarn Taran blast, extradited from Vienna: NIA
Bikramjit Singh alias Bikkar Panjwar was brought back to India by a team of the federal anti-terror agency NIA, which was sent to Austria
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 Austria, the agency said on Thursday.
Singh was detained in Vienna on March 22 last year on the basis of an Interpol red notice.
“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 travelled to Vienna to bring him to India 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. The three were allegedly trying to dig out the explosives they had buried in a vacant plot on the outskirts of the village.
“Investigations revealed that Bikramjit Singh not only instigated the men to commit terrorist acts but also trained them to fabricate Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and use them. During various processions/agitations, he carried bombs and instigated other participants to attack government agencies to strike terror in the population at large. He is the key conspirator in the conspiracy to target Dera Muradpura (in Tarn Taran),” the spokesperson said.
NIA filed a charge sheet against nine people including Panjwar in March 2020, alleging that the accused were pro-Khalistan and 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 allegedly left India in 2018 and was coordinating and planning terror activities from Vienna.
He is the second accused to have been brought to the country from abroad. Earlier this month, NIA brought another wanted person - Harpreet Singh alias Happy Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur. Harpreet Singh was alleged to be the main conspirator of the December 2021 Ludhiana court bomb blast.
