To settle old score, 18-year-old youth joined BKI module
Some youths from the adjoining villages, during a fight, stripped him, videographed him and then posted his video on social media that perhaps led him to take an extreme step that spoiled his entire life.
Having turned 18 just a month back, Jatinder Singh of Lakhan Kalan village of Kapurthala has been booked by the Batala police for attacking Qila Lal Singh Police Station with a rocket launcher two weeks back. The teen is now facing harsh charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosives Act.
"Just a month ahead of the incident, he was taking his examination of Class XII. He could attempt all his theory exams but his practicals were still pending when the fight happened. We know that he was restless and learnt to have been talking with his peers of taking revenge from some boys. But we fail to understand when and how he got aligned with a module of the Babbar Khalsa International, learnt to know about the use of explosives and that too a rocket launcher. He had left home in anger and was barely away for a week", said sarpanch of the village Kuldeep Singh.
Villagers shared, "The police had come searching for him in the village on April 15. The boy returned home the next day. The family and the sarpanch handed him over to the police." They elaborated, "This boy had fondness for a girl from a nearby village. He had even got tattooed her name on his neck. The boys from the village beat him up after which he spent Rs 1,800 more to get the name tweaked into another pattern."
The boy's father Jaspal Singh is a welder at a factory in Hamira, about 2 km from their place. His mother Gurpreet Kaur is a homemaker. Both of them have said they have still not been able to come to terms with the incident.
"He has been quite religious-minded. We thought that he could have gone to Anandpur Sahib or Amritsar. We have now got to know that he had reached out to some anti-social elements just to settle score with those boys who had beaten him up and ashamed him", he said.
Two days ago, DGP Gaurav Yadav had announced the busting of two modules of the BKI and arrest of 13 youths with the recovery of two rocket launchers, sticky bombs, IEDs, hand grenades and other explosives.
