Punjab Police Tuesday arrested two men, including an alleged operative of Pakistan’s ISI-backed Khalistan Tiger Force and the other backed by foreign based gangsters, and claimed to have busted two terror modules. The police also recovered arms and ammunition, including a tiffin bomb, three hand grenades and two AK-56 assault rifles.
In the first case, Amritsar rural police arrested Yograj Singh alias Yog, a resident of Rajoke village in Tarn Taran district, who was the main operative of a narco-terrorism module being jointly operated by Canada-based Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, Pakistan-based Harvinder Singh Rinda and Italy-based Harpreet Singh alias Happy.
“An RDX-loaded tiffin box fabricated into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or tiffin bomb, two sophisticated AK-56 assault rifles along with two magazines and 30 live cartridges, one .30 bore pistol along with six live cartridges and 2 kg heroin was recovered from the accused,” Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said. The group was backed by Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, he said.
In a separate case, the state police arrested one Harpreet Singh alias Hira, a key operative of the ISI-backed KTF, the DHP said, adding three hand-grenades, two pistols along with 60 live cartridges have been recovered from his car. This particular terror module was being operated by Canada-based gangster Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala, who is a close associate of KTF’s Canada-based chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Hira is a resident of Jujhar Nagar in Bathinda.
The two successes came amid an intensified vigil by the police against anti-social elements ahead of the festival season, the DGP said.
Five more accomplices of Yograj Singh, who were allegedly carrying out illegal activities across Punjab and adjoining states, have been identified, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Swapan Sharma said, adding that manhunt has been launched to nab them.
DGP Yadav said that Yograj was wanted by the state police and central enforcement agencies in at least five criminal cases, including the one where five AK-47 assault rifles were seized in Tarn Taran in September 2019. He said preliminary investigations revealed that the cross-border operations of arms-explosives-drugs smuggling were mainly handled by Yograj on the directions of Landa, Rinda and Happy and jailed smuggler Gurpavitar alias Sai of Lakhna of Tarn Taran.
Yograj had been active in recovery and further delivery of consignments of arms and drugs at a large scale, he added.
SSP Sharma said that further investigations are on and more recoveries of arms and explosives are expected soon.
An FIR has been registered under Sections 21, 27-A, 29, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act and Sections 25, 54, 59 of Arms Act at Ramdas police station in Amritsar Rural.
On Hira, DGP said that following a reliable input, Moga police laid a ‘naka’ at Kotkapura-Baghapurana road and rounded up the accused, who was traveling to Amritsar in his car.
During preliminary investigations, Hira confessed that he was going to deliver the hand grenades and arms consignment on the directions of close-associate of Arsh Dala identified as Amandeep Singh alias Babbu, who is currently lodged in Hoshiarpur Jail.
SSP Moga Gulneet Singh Khurana said that Hira “revealed that the consignment was brought by Veeja Singh and Ranjodh Singh from the border area on the directions of Arsh Dala’s Manila-based associates identified as Manpreet Singh alias Pita and Amritpal Singh alias Ammy, who are also associated with terrorists in Pakistan”. Hira also revealed that Manpreet Pita and Ammy have handed over the consignment to two unknown persons in Moga, who further assigned him to deliver it at an undisclosed location in Amritsar, the SSP added.
Hira’s arrest came two days after the two operatives of the same module, identified as Veeja Singh alias Gagan alias Gaggu and Ranjodh Singh alias Jyoti, were nabbed from the Chamkaur Sahib area.
Earlier, the Ferozepur Police had recovered one sophisticated AK-47 assault rifle along with two magazines and 60 live cartridges from the paddy fields of village Arifke in Ferozepur that were intended for retrieval by Veeja Singh and Ranjodh Singh.
An FIR has been registered under sections 25(6)(7)-54-59 of the Arms Act, Sections 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Explosive Substances (Amendment) Act, and sections 13 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at Baghapurana police station.
