Punjab Police busts terror module behind Pathankot Army camp attack, 6 held

Punjab Police has solved the hand grenade attacks including an attack at Pathankot Army Camp by busting a major terror module backed by the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) group with the arrest of its six operatives.

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, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab VK Bhawra said.

Those arrested have been identified as Amandeep alias Mantri, Gurwinder Singh alias Gindi, Parminder Kumar alias Rohit alias Rohta, Rajinder Singh alias Malhi alias Nikku, Harpreet Singh alias Dholki and Raman Kumar.

As per the information, in two instances some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades at Pathankot-- one near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021, while another grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021.

Separate First Information Report (FIRs) in this regard were registered at Police Station Pathankot Division 2 and Division 1 respectively.

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 etc," he said.

The accused persons have also confessed to having lobbed hand grenades for two times in Pathankot, he added.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), SBS Nagar, Kanwardeep Kaur said that the SBS Nagar Police have registered the FIR dated 07-01-2021 under sections 16,17,18 and 20 of the UA(P) Act, sections 4 and 5 Explosive Substances Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station City Nawanshahr.

"Further investigations are on," she added.