The Hoshiarpur police claimed to have busted a Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terror module with the arrest of three youths, who were in touch with some radical NRIs and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The arrested youths have been identified as Jaspreet Singh Jassa of Handowal, Hardip Singh Deepa of Jallowal and Kuldip Singh, all from the district. Others booked are two US-based NRIs Harjap Singh Japhi and Italy-based Avtar Singh. Bikramjit Singh of Ghuman in Gurdaspur district is yet to be arrested.
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Japhi, an activist of ‘Sikhs for Justice’ organisation, has roots in Chabbewal, whereas Avtar hails from Bullowal village.
“The arrests were made after a tip off from the Central agencies. We have recovered one foreign-made .9mm pistol, two .32-bore pistols, cartridges and pro-Khalistan material from them,” said Hoshiarpur SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal.
He said preliminary investigations revealed that the group was planning to attack Avtar Singh Tarri, a “granthi” and an accused in sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, an incident that took place at Gurudwara in Khadiana village of Jalandhar district in October 2015.
{{/usCountry}}He said preliminary investigations revealed that the group was planning to attack Avtar Singh Tarri, a “granthi” and an accused in sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, an incident that took place at Gurudwara in Khadiana village of Jalandhar district in October 2015.
{{/usCountry}}The accused have been booked by the Chabbewal police under the Prevention of Unlawful Activities and Arms Act on August 6. The accused are in police remand till August 11, said the SSP.
Inspector general of police (IGP), Jalandhar zone, Lok Nath Angra said the central intelligence agencies had intercepted calls originating from USA and Italy which led to arrest the local youths who were planning to attack the “granthi”.
“They had also created fake Facebook IDs to communicate with Pakistan-based militants, suspected to be having links with ISI,” he said.
“It’s yet to be ascertained if this module had any plan to disrupt the Independence Day celebrations,” said a police officer involved in the investigation.
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