Punjab Police busts pro-Khalistan terror module, arrests two

“The Pakistan-backed module was busted on the basis of inputs about the nefarious designs of certain pro-Khalistan elements trying to disturb peace and harmony in the state by launching terror attacks,” said the DGP.

Gupta said that based on intelligence inputs, Punjab Police had launched a drive to ensure thorough frisking and checking of all those entering the state from various parts of the country, thus leading to the arrest of the two.

Six sophisticated weapons (one 9mm pistol, four .32 calibre pistols and one .32 revolver), 8 live rounds of ammunition, several mobile phones and an internet dongle were seized from the duo, who were nabbed at the checkpost near Hotel Jashan on Rajpura-Sirhind road by a police party comprising ASI Gurdarshan Singh, Head Constable Jora Singh and Punjab Home Guard Pritpal Singh, said the DGP.

A case under various sections of Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act read with sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 has been registered against the duo.

During preliminary investigation, the accused revealed that they received 4 weapons from Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, and 2 were received from Safidon in Jind district of Haryana, according to the DGP. Gupta said that the two accused are also wanted in an attempt to murder and Arms Act case registered in Police Station Sarai Amanat Khan, district Tarn Taran.

Sharing details about Shubhdeep Singh, who is currently in Amritsar jail, the DGP said: “He was an active militant of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), who was arrested by Punjab Police in September 2019 with the recovery of a China-made drone from village Mahawa, Amritsar Rural police district. In April last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had filed a chargesheet against him along with 8 others, including Akashdeep Singh, Balwant Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Balbir Singh, Maan Singh, Gurdev Singh, Sajanpreet Singh and Romandeep Singh before the special NIA court in Mohali. This case related to information that Pakistan based Chief of KZF, Ranjeet Singh aka Neeta in connivance with Gurmeet Singh aka Bagga, a Germany based KZF operative, had smuggled arms, ammunition, explosives and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) into India via drones from Pakistan.”

As regards Randeep Singh aka Romi, Gupta said that “he is wanted by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), Amritsar in a case of attempt to murder, drug smuggling and Arms Act dating back to December 16, 2014”.