CHANDIGARH: With the arrest of six alleged operatives of International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) group, Punjab Police claims to have busted a major terror module and solved the hand grenade attacks including one at Pathankot Army Camp, Punjab DGP claimed.
The SBS Nagar 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, DGP Punjab VK Bhawra said here on Monday.
Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep alias Mantri of village Lakhanpal in Gurdaspur, Gurwinder Singh alias Gindi of village Kharal in Gurdaspur, Parminder Kumar alias Rohit alias Rohta of village Kharal in Gurdaspur, Rajinder Singh alias Malhi alias Nikku of village Gunnupur in Gurdaspur, Harpreet Singh alias Dholki of village Gotpokar in Gurdaspur and Raman Kumar of village Ghazikot in Gurdaspur.
According to DGP VK Bhawra in two instances some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades at Pathankot one near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021 at about 9:30 PM, while, another grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021 at about 9PM. Separate FIRs in this regard were registered at Police Station Pathankot Division 2 and Division 1 respectively.
Giving details, the DGP said that during the preliminary interrogation, accused persons revealed that they were directly in touch with self-proclaimed chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode and his close aides identified as Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal and Sukhpreet alias Sukh 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 arrested accused persons had been tasked for further attacking the pre-identified targets which were mainly police and defence establishments, religious places,” he said, adding that the accused have also confessed to have lobbed hand grenades for two times in Pathankot. The DGP said that SBS police station registeted FIR and started further investigation into the matter.
Notably, the role of Lakhbir Rode was also found in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh at Bhikhiwind on October 16, 2020 besides in the recovery of tiffin IED, RDX, arms and ammunition from his relative Gurmukh Singh Rode from Jalandhar in August 2021. Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal, who is presently lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi was also involved in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh and in case of murderous attack on Honey Mahajan at Dhariwal on February 10, 2020. He was deported from Dubai in December, 2020. Sukh Bhikhariwal provided foot-soldiers, arms and ammunition, logistics, funds, for execution of these crimes.