Call intercept: Couple did village recce

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 2

The person who allegedly used banned satellite phone  in India on Friday morning was present in an open field near Karnana village, Banga, while making the international call. The call was reportedly intercepted by the Army signals unit.

Sources in the village told The Tribune on the phone that two unidentified persons, including a turbaned woman, carried out a recee in the area on July 24. They were trying to identify the families that supported the banned terror outfit Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) during the insurgency period in the state. Karnana village was the hub of the Khalistan movement during those days and many families in the village had lost their relatives while extending support to the movement.

According to a youth whose paternal uncle supported the KZF during the insurgency period (1982 to 1990), two turbaned youths, including a woman, in their mid-30s visited them last Monday. They introduced themselves as the representatives of an NGO and sought details about their family. The couple visited every family that had supported the KZF in the past, he said.

“They said they were conducting a survey of the families that lost their members during the movement. They said collection of database about all such families was being done across the state,” the youth said. The couple did not possess any identity cards. They refused to give their contact numbers despite being asked to do so, he added.

Karnana had been in the news for the arrest of KZF supporters and recovery of arms and ammunition on several occasions in the past. On May 21, 2012, the police arrested two KZF members near the village and seized two Chinese pistols and 11 cartridges from their possession. 

Identified as Sandip of Saifabad village in Jalandhar and Sukhwinder of Rohanano village, near Khanna in Ludhiana, they were arrested at a naka. Following a tip-off by them, the police later seized 2.7 kg RDX, three bombs, as many detonators and two timers buried in the fields at Poonia village (Banga) and Saifabad village (Phillaur).

Banga SSP Snehdeep Sharma, however, refuted the reports about the interception of any satellite call. He also refuted media reports that there was any plan to launch an operation to arrest suspected terrorists in the area.

Highly placed sources, however, confirmed that an international call was intercepted and that the police had planned a full-fledged operation in support with the Army to arrest the suspects. The plan to conduct the operation was, however, called off minutes before its start after a meeting of top officials of the Army, police, Intelligence Bureau and the district administration at the Banga police station caught attention of the people and media persons.

Though the reported interception was made two days ago, the state police are yet to locate the satellite phone used for making the international call. This has exposed the tall claim made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who had been applauding the state police ever since the Dinanagar terror attack, claiming that it was capable of tackling any terror threat single-handedly.