ISI behind killings: Capt

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7

Six of the nine high-profile targeted killings over the last two years in Punjab were the handiwork of a terror module run by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), possibly in collusion with Sikh radicals, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announced at a press conference today. 

He said the police had arrested four persons involved in the killing of RSS state vice-president Brig (Retd) Jagdish Gagneja, Punjab Shiv Sena labour wing head Durga Prasad Gupta, Sri Hindu Takht publicity manager Amit Sharma, Dera Sacha Sauda followers Satpal Kumar and his son Ramesh, pastor Sultan Masih and Ludhiana RSS leader Ravinder Gosain.

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Suspect Jimmy Singh, a Jammu resident who had recently returned to India from the UK, was picked up from Delhi’s IGI airport a week ago while Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi, a UK national, was nabbed in Jalandhar. 

The third suspect, Dharmender alias Guggni, a gangster from Meharban (Ludhiana), supplied weapons to the killers. The fourth suspect, the main shooter, was caught this afternoon. “Details about him cannot be disclosed. His

interrogation is on. The cops have forensic and ballistic  proof against him,” he said.

Suresh Arora, state DGP, said gangster Guggni was lodged in the Nabha jail, which strengthened the suspicion of a nexus between radicals and gangsters. “Three weapons — 9mm, .32 and .30 bore pistols — were used  in all the cases,” he said.

Though handed over to the CBI, the Punjab Police had been able to crack the Gagneja case with the smashing of the terror module — the eighth since the Congress government took charge, the CM said.

He said interrogation of the four “conspirators” revealed they had been trained abroad and were using encrypted mobile software/apps to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan and some countries in the West.

Praising the Intelligence and counter-Intelligence wings and Batala and Moga police, Arora said a team comprising IG-Intelligence Amit Prasad, DIG (Counter-Intelligence) Ranbir Khatra, SSPs Ranjit Singh, Opinderjit Ghuman, Rajinder Singh and Wazir Singh, DSPs Sulakhan Singh and Sarabjit Singh, CIA Inspector Kikar Singh and ASI Haripal had busted the module.