Another KTF militant module busted in Punjab; 3 held with tiffin bombs, hand grenades and pistols

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/Tarn Taran, September 23

Punjab Police have busted another militant module backed by Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) with the arrest of its three activists from Bhagwanpur village in Bhikhiwind area of Tarn Taran.

The police have also recovered two boxes packed in foam (appear to be tiffin bombs), two hand grenades (86P) and three 9mm pistols from their possession. This is the sixth tiffin bomb recovered from border state Punjab in one-and-a-half months.

Those arrested have been identified as Kanwarpal Singh, Kulwinder Singh and Kamalpreet Singh, all residents of Moga. Kanwarpal disclosed that he had returned from Canada two weeks back.

The development came four months after the Punjab Police had arrested three activists of the KTF, involved in several heinous crimes, including the murder of a Dera follower and firing on a priest. The trio had been found acting on the directions of KTF’s Canada-based chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Sharing details, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Internal Security RN Dhoke said that during a police checking, Tarn Taran police teams intercepted the Swift car bearing registration number PB29AD6808 at a barricade near Bhagwanpur village in Bhikhiwind and arrested the trio.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the module members had reached Tarn Taran to retrieve the dumped militant hardware consignment, on the directions of Canada-based Arshdeep Dalla, who is a close aide of Hardeep Nijjar.

ADGP Dhoke said that, during investigation, accused persons revealed that after retrieving the consignments, they were awaiting further instructions from Arshdeep Dalla. Notably, Kamaljit and Lovepreet, who were earlier arrested in Moga, had introduced the accused persons to Arshdeep.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 475 of the Explosives Substance Amendment Act, Sections 13/18/20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sections 25/54/59 of the Arms Act at police station Bhikhiwind.

Earlier, on August 8, 2021, the Amritsar Rural police had recovered five hand grenades along with a tiffin bomb from village Daleke in Lopoke.

Similarly, Kapurthala police had also recovered a consignment consisting of two live hand grenades, one live tiffin bomb and other explosive material from Phagwara on August 20, while, the third tiffin was used to blow off an oil tanker in Ajnala on August 8.

The fourth tiffin bomb was recovered from fields in village Dharmpura of Fazilka on September 18.

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