Terror attack averted as 2 held with hand grenade, gun in Malerkotla

Mahesh Sharma

Malerkotla, April 2

The police on Monday averted a major terror attack and arrested two persons after they were caught conspiring to strike at their prospective target, which is yet to be ascertained by investigating agencies.

An HE-36 hand grenade and a .32 bore revolver, besides an SUV (PB 03-6069) were seized from their possession. The suspects were identified as Harnam Singh of Rurki Kalan under the jurisdiction of the Ahmedgarh Sadar police station and Amrit Pal Singh, alias Ravi, of Manvi village, falling under the Amargarh police station.

Malerkotla SSP Simrat Kaur said a joint team of Mahorana CIA Wing and Counter Intelligence Wing had succeeded in averting a major terror attack by nabbing the suspects when they were conspiring to strike at a target on Monday.

They were sitting in their vehicle at a deserted place on the outskirts of Rurki Kalan village when police officials led by SP (I) Vaibhav Sehgal, DSP (D) Satish Kumar and CIA incharge Harjinder Singh overpowered them and recovered the explosives and arms from them.

“Having received information about their presence at the captioned place, we deployed a team of police officials to foil their evil designs and the cops’ prompt and coordinated action resulted in the arrest of the duo,” said SSP Kaur. She said further investigation was being conducted under the supervision of SP (I) Sehgal, DSP (D) Kumar and CIA incharge Singh.

The investigation team is yet to ascertain whether the suspects were well versed with the use of hand grenades or they were about to handover it to their accomplices, if any.

The suspects were booked under Section 5 of the Explosives Act and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act at the Ahmedgarh Sadar police station.

Their arrest is being viewed as a major achievement of the Malerkotla police in view of the Lok Sabha elections and Ramadan.