Ludhiana, December 30
The Shingaar cinema blast in which six migrants were killed and 37 others hurt was the handiwork of about 20 Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) militants, the police said here today.

Two-and-a-half months after the blast, DGP, Punjab, N.P.S. Aulalkh today announced that the four arrested militants were trained and funded by BKI leaders in Pakistan.

Aulakh said the prize catch among the four was Gurpreet Singh, trained second-generation militant, who was trying to revive terrorism in Punjab at the behest of the BKI leaders in Pakistan. His announcement ended the week-long speculation about the fate of Gurpreet.

He was a son of former terrorist and proclaimed offender Tarlok Singh, the DGP said.

Others nabbed were Sandeep Singh, alias Harry, of Ghuman village, near Sudhar, Palwinder Singh, alias Pappu, of Kamalpura village in Jagraon and Ravinder Singh, alias Rinku, of Azad Nagar here. Bhavdeep Singh, a brother of Sandeep, was already arrested.

Two days ago, the Jagraon police had nabbed an alleged human bomb Bhawanjit Singh, who was trained by Gurpreet.

The police was looking for another key accused Harminder Singh, who was absconding. Harminder and Rinku had planted the bomb in the cinema while other three had waited outside in an auto-rickshaw.

The police claimed that all four had been arrested from different locations in the city. The police has recovered 5.10 kg RDX , three detonators, one .315-bore pistol, one .22-bore pistol, three batteries and a Chetak scooter (PB-10 B Q 3986) from them.

SSP, Ludhiana, R.K. Jaiswal said the militants wanted to target Baba Bhaniarawale, Baba Ashutosh and Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. They made an attempt at the dera of Baba Ashutosh and another at Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Ambala, but failed.

Under pressure to perform from Pakistan-based BKI leaders, the group chose Shingaar cinema as a soft target. October 14 was chosen to create trouble. It was Id that day, the hall had majority of the migrant population and Dusehra was approaching.

The SSP said Gurpreet, along with another accused Harminder Singh, had sneaked into Pakistan in 2006 to meet BKI leaders and get training. After returning, he allegedly motivated a number of youths to revive terrorism in the state.

They received RDX and other devices at the Rajasthan border. It was distributed among them. Gurpreet later trained seven militants in the Garhi Mansowal area in Garhshanker in handling explosives, making bomb and using weapons. The militants were trained separately.

Aulakh said a special award in the form of promotion and cash would be given to the investigating team. He specially congratulated SSP R. K. Jaiswal for the success in solving the Shingaar cinema blast case.

A team constituted in the wake of the blast was headed by IG (Zonal) Sanjiv Kalra and had DIG, Ludhiana, Ishwar Singh, DIG, Jalandhar, Narinderpal Singh, SSP, Ludhiana, Jaiswal, SSP, Jagraon, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar and SSP, Kapurthala, Rakesh Aggarwal as members.

The Kapurthala police had nabbed Gurinder Singh and three accomplices, the Ludhiana police had earlier arrested Bhavdeep Singh, Dr Bhagwan Singh Sandhu, a Khalistan idealogue, and the Jagraon police had arrested Bhawanjit Singh and Sarabjit Singh, an SGPC employee, for terrorist activities.