RSS leader shifted to Ludhiana

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Ludhiana, August 7

Brigadier (retd) JC Gagneja, vice-president of the Punjab Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), who was shot at in Jalandhar last night, was shifted to Hero DMC Heart Institute here this afternoon amid tight security even as intelligence sources said they suspected the hand of a Khalistani group in the attack.

One of the doctors said Gagneja's condition was critical. “We have stitched the stomach at three places and the intestines at five.There is fluid in the chest," he said.

(Follow ; and )

There was a huge rush of VVIPs outside the Emergency Ward. One of Gagneja's daughters, her hands folded, requested that they be given way. Even before Gagneja was brought to the hospital, RSS district chief Phul Chand Jain, senior BJP leader Renu Thapar, Satpal Gossain, Ravinder Arora, Anil Sarin, Arunesh Mishra and KD Bhandari (CPS) had already arrived there.They were later joined by Dr Navjot Sidhu and Jagdish Sahni (former minister).

Observing that the law and order situation had worsened, Dr Sidhu said she was certain that "the people of Punjab will bring about a change." Anil Sareen, BJP vice-president, Punjab, said the people must remain calm and not allow peace to be sabotaged.

Meanwhile, Punjab DGP Suresh Arora, DGP (Law and Order) Hardeep Dhillon and Additional DGP IPS Sahota, SIT head, inspected the crime site. Commissioner Police Arpit Shukla said, “We have formed 10 police teams. CCTV footages along various city routes have been obtained and eyewitness accounts are being collated."

Intelligence sources said the questioning of terrorists arrested in the past one year, including Jagtar Singh Tara and Ramandeep Goldy, suggested that aided by Pakistan's ISI, some separatist groups were trying to regroup.

“We strongly suspect the involvement of separatists behind the attack on Gagneja. We have busted more than five modules of these Khalistani groups in the past two years. All of them said the ISI was trying to foment trouble in Punjab by targeting RSS leaders. We had prevented many such attacks," claimed a senior officer.

The police believes the assailants were not sharp shooters and were recent 'recruits'.