Three of BKI held from Bihar, cops probe role in temple attack

The Amritsar Commissionerate Police have busted a narco-terror module of the banned Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) with the arrest of three operatives from Bihar while they were trying to flee to Nepal.

The three — Karandeep Yadav (21), alias Karan Bhaiya; Mukesh Kumar (29); and Sajan Singh (24) — are all residents of the Khandwala area, where a grenade was lobbed at a temple on Friday night. The police have not ruled out their role in the temple attack.

Three mobile phones and 700 Nepalese rupees have been recovered from their possession. The arrests come after Joban Singh, alias Joban, and Gurbaksh Singh, alias Lala, were nabbed with 290 gm heroin on March 11. The names of the three arrested suspects had cropped up during investigations.

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said the three were working on the directions of Pakistan-based BKI mastermind Harwinder Rinda. “The investigations revealed that Yadav had delivered the grenades and weapons that were recovered from Tarn Taran in January,” he said.

The Tarn Taran police had arrested four operatives — Robinjeet Singh, alias Robin; Harpreet Singh, alias Happy; Navjot Singh, alias Nav; and Jagdeep Singh, alias Jagga — and recovered two hand grenades and a pistol from their possession.

“The three, who originally hailed from Khandwala and Chheharta in Amritsar district were arrested from the jurisdiction of Kumarkhand police station in Madhepura, Bihar, when they were planning to cross over to Nepal,” DGP Yadav said, adding they were being brought back to Punjab for further interrogation.

Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the Chheharta police led by Station House Officer (SHO) Vinod Kumar arrested the suspects in an intelligence-based operation from Bihar. Further investigations were on to establish their backward and forward linkages in the case, the commissioner said.

“Karan, who did shuttering work, was a suspect in the Tarn Taran hand grenade case, while Mukesh, a disc jockey, and Sajan Singh, a labourer, didn’t have a criminal record,” he added.