2 suspected terrorists with Canadian, Pak links nabbed in Amritsar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 21

The BSF and Punjab Police in a joint operation on Sunday claimed to have busted a terror module with links to Canada and Pakistan, and arrested two terrorists who were planning to target "enemies of the Panth".

The security forces also seized a huge cache of arms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, five hand grenades, a modified machine-pistol (MP), five pistols and over 450 rounds of live ammunition of different calibres from the duo, who were arrested from Indo-Pak border area while trying to recover the weapons pushed into the Indian territory from Pakistan.

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Mann Singh (40) and Sher Singh (28) from Sri Hargobindpur (Gurdaspur) and Kartarpur (Jalandhar), respectively, were arrested from the Ramada area in Amritsar.

Preliminary interrogation of the terrorists has revealed that their module was raised and indoctrinated by a Sikh hardliner, Gurjivan Singh, based in Ontario, Canada, who had made two trips to Punjab in the last six months, and arranged the arms and ammunitions for their operations through his Khalistani contacts in Pakistan.

The duo has revealed that Gurjivan Singh had been in touch with them for the past two years and had motivated them to commit terror strikes in Punjab. 

They also revealed that during his last two trips to Punjab, Gurjivan Singh had imparted them theoretical training in handling arms, including AK-47 rifles.

They also told the interrogators that they had travelled with Gurjivan Singh to Uttar Pradesh to procure arms but had been unsuccessful. Subsequently, Gurjivan had promised to arrange the arms and ammunition for them through his Pak-based Khalistani contacts and their ISI handlers.

 During interrogation, Mann Singh also confessed to having made several visits to Pakistan and to being in touch with some Khalistani activists there.

A Punjab Police spokesperson said the arms and ammunitions seized during the operation were found buried close to the Indo-Pak border and the suspects had been provided with the co-ordinates of the spot.

They had reached the border early on Sunday morning and were trying to look for the spot when the BSF personnel nabbed them. 

The consignment recovered at their instance included five 7.62 mm pistols with nine magazines and 205 live rounds; a 9mm pistol with two magazines and 77 live rounds; an AK 47 rifle with three magazines and 157 live rounds; a MP 9 modified rifle with two magazines; five hand grenades; a .32 bore revolver with 39 live rounds; a 315 bore rifle with one magazine and 17 live rounds.

Further interrogation of the suspects is in progress and immigration records are being retrieved to track Gurjivan's movement.