Police probe sleeper cell contacts of terror suspect

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 31

The Patiala police have verified facts in the case involving alleged terrorist, Sandeep Sharma, who was arrested in Srinagar, earlier this year. Sharma had stayed for a brief period in Patiala disguised as a labourer and was suspected to have been in touch with sleeper cells.

Following a detailed investigation, the police probed to identify sleeper cells in parts of the state, including Patiala, after the arrest of Sandeep Sharma from Srinagar on July 1.

The police traced his stay in Devigarh area, where the accused terror suspect was working as a labourer for a brief time, but did not indulge in any illegal activity.

Sharma, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, UP, was arrested from the same house where LeT militant Bashir Lashkari was killed on July 1. He is the new face of the LeT in the restive Kashmir. Since his arrest, the state police were on their toes to identify his links in Patiala.

The Patiala police had initiated a probe after the Jammu and Kashmir Police shared details pertaining to “sleeper cells” that could be active in Punjab. Sandeep was working as a labourer in Patiala and the Srinagar police had no clues about his contacts in the city during his stay, following which they alerted the police about the same.

“We had sent our team to Srinagar and later investigated the contacts that Sandeep had during his stay in Patiala,” said SP (Investigation) Harvinder Virk. “We have informed our Srinagar counterparts about the details we had gathered about Sandeep”, he said.

Sources in the Punjab Police confirmed that Sharma had stayed in Patiala for more than four months and was initially suspected to be in touch with sleeper cells of a banned outfit before going to Kashmir Valley.