Terror module busted, Pathankot case solved

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 10

The police have solved hand grenade attack cases, including the attack on Pathankot Army camp, by busting a major terror module backed by International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) with the arrest of six of its operatives.

The police have also recovered six hand grenades (86 P), one pistol (9mm), one rifle (.30 bore) along with live bullets and magazines from their possession, Director General of Police (DGP) VK Bhawra said here on Monday.

Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep of Lakhanpal village in Gurdaspur, Gurwinder Singh of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Parminder Kumar of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Rajinder Singh of Gunnupur village in Gurdaspur; Harpreet Singh of Gotpokar village in Gurdaspur and Raman Kumar of Ghazikot village in Gurdaspur.

He said in two instances, some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades at Pathankot — one near Chakki Pull around 9.30 pm on November 11 and another outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of the Army at Pathankot, around 9 pm on November 21. The DGP said during the preliminary interrogation, the accused revealed that they were directly in touch with self-proclaimed chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode and his close aides Sukhmeetpal Singh and Sukhpreet for planning terrorist attacks.

“The entire cache of the recovered hand grenades, arms and ammunition were pushed in from across the international border by Lakhbir Rode and the arrested accused had been tasked for further attacking the pre-identified targets which were mainly police and defence establishments, religious places etc,” he said, adding that the accused had confessed to have lobbed hand grenades two times in Pathankot.

SSP, SBS Nagar, Kanwardeep Kaur said the SBS Nagar Police have registered an FIR dated January 7 under Sections 16, 17, 18 and 20 of the UA(P) Act, Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act and Section 25 of the Arms Act at the Nawanshahr city police station. Lakhbir Rode had a role in the killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh at Bhikhiwind on October 16, 2020, besides in the recovery of tiffin IED, RDX and ammunition from his relative Gurmukh Singh Rode from Jalandhar in August 2021. Sukhmeetpal Singh, who is lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi, was involved in the killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh and in the case of a attack on Honey Mahajan at Dhariwal on February 10, 2020.

Six arrested with arms, ammunition

• Six operatives of International Sikh Youth Federation held with six hand grenades, arms and ammunition by SBS Nagar police
• Pak-based ISYF chief Lakhbir Singh Rode and Greece-based Sukhpreet behind these terror attacks, accoeding to the DGP