Patiala police bust terror module, nail 2

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 9

The police have foiled a major terror network with the arrest of two alleged terrorists, and have seizedweapons from their possession. Three others, who were providing logistic support to them, have also been arrested.

The CIA, Patiala, busted the terror module by arresting the two, identified as Pritpal Singh Giffy Batra and Gurdev Singh Preety.

Jailed gangsters were supplying weapons

• In April this year, the grilling of four gangsters by the Patiala police had revealed how jailed gangsters were supplying weapons to gangsters
• Gangsters lodged in the Faridkot and Nabha prisons were running ‘illegal weapons’ trade in the state by providing ‘weapons on demand’ to various Punjab-based gangsters
• As many as 22 semi-automatic pistols have been recovered so far
• Eleven suspects, who were allegedly supplying arms to the gangsters, have also been arrested

“We have recovered three weapons (two foreign-made 9 mm pistols and one .32 bore pistol with ammunition),” said Patiala SSP Deepak Pareek. “Two other suspects, Bhavdeep Singh, alias Honey, and Gurdarshan Singh Nikku, who allegedly provided shelter to the two terrorists, have also been arrested,” said Pareek.

Earlier in September, the CIA, Patiala, had arrested another suspect, Kamaldeep Singh Alohran, and recovered a 32 bore pistol from him. During interrogation, he had given information about some foreign pistols, which he, along with Pritpal Batra, had bought from Pathankot near the border area. On October 1, Batra was arrested by our team from a rented accommodation.

CIA in-charge Shaminder Singh said Honey was also involved in terrorist cases and was the brother of main accused Sandeep Singh, involved in the Shingar cinema bomb blast case in Ludhiana. “The other suspect, Gursharan, is a proclaimed offender in separate cases in Ludhiana and Bathinda,” he said.

The Patiala police had brought Gurdev Singh on a production warrant from the Faridkot jail and recovered two phones from him. “He is the brother of foreign-based terrorist Gurmeet Singh Bagga, who is an accomplice of Ranjeet Neeta, chief of the Khalistan Zindabad Force. Gurdev Singh had stayed in Pakistan for five years and is at present lodged in jail in a drone-recovery case registered in 2019 in Amrita,” said the police.

“Batra runs a chemist shop in Nabha and is the main accused in this case. He has various other cases against him under the NDPS Act. Investigations are on,” said Pareek.

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