Three operatives of Passian, Rinda terror module nabbed for ‘blast’ near non-functional Fatehgarh Churian police post

Days after the suspected blast outside non-functional Fatehgarh Churian police post, the Amritsar city police commissionerate have nabbed three alleged operatives of the US-based-gangster-turned- terrorist Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Passian, and Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh Rinda’s terror module on Sunday night.

Two of them were injured in a brief encounter with the city police when they attempted to escape from police custody near the Rajasansi area around 11pm yesterday. According to the police, the duo allegedly tried to escape from the police custody by snatching a pistol of ASI Gurjit Singh. A brief encounter ensued, in which they were injured.

The police also seized an AK 47 rifle, a .30-bore Glock pistol and a .32-bore pistol, besides ammunition from the three accused identified as Lovepreet Singh and Karandeep Singh, residents of Jagdev Kalan village in Ajnala, and Boota Singh, a resident of Mukam village. Lovepreet and Boota Singh, who had made an attempt to flee after snatching pistol and were injured in the brief encounter that ensued.

Addressing a press conference here today, Police Commissioner (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said Passian recruited and allured the accused by offering money for executing different tasks on his instructions. He said Boota Singh had a brother in Dubai, where Happy Passian was also residing at that time. Due to this connection, Boota Singh was in contact with Happy Passian via mobile phone. He introduced Lovepreet Singh and Karandeep Singh to Happy Passian via social media. Passian arranged various sophisticated and automatic weapons and funds through his other local contacts for carrying out the blast.

Sharing details of the incident, Bhullar said following Boota Singh’s and Lovepreet’s disclosure, the police confiscated an AK-47 rifle with four rounds and a pistol with five rounds from the Ajnala and Rajasansi areas. Later, the police took along accused Karandeep for further recovery of pistol in the Rajasansi area. The CP said Lovepreet suddenly snatched service pistol from ASI Gurjit Singh and fired at the police party while attempting to escape from spot. Amidst this, Boota Singh also attempted to flee from the police custody, the CP added.

To prevent the duo from escaping and acting in self-defence, Harinder Singh, SHO, Sadar police station, and Binderjit Singh, in-charge, CIA staff-3 fired back from their service weapons leaving Lovepreet and Boota Singh injured.

The injured accused were immediately taken to the Civil Hospital where doctors declared them out of danger. A separate case under Sections 109,188 and 189 of the BNS and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered at the Airport police station against the accused in this connection.

The CP said a section of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was also added in the FIR. He said the accused were produced in a court and brought on police remand for further investigation.

He said during a preliminary probe, the accused confessed to their involvement in the blast. The accused told the police that they got a wrapped material which caused a noise after hitting the ground (road) near the police post triggering a panic in the area, the CP said.