Chandigarh, Nov 24 (UNI) Punjab Police has arrested the second and the main perpetrator of the Nirankari Satsang Bhawan grenade attack, Director General of Police said on Saturday.
The police have strong evidence against the arrested accused Avtar, and he would be produced in the court to seek his remand, DGP Suresh Arora said while addressing a press conference, also attended by DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, and DGP (Law & Order) H S Dhillon.
Last week, two assailant, lobbed a grenade on a religious congregation at a Nirankari Satsang Bhawan in Amristsar, in which three people were killed and several injured. The police has identified both the accused as Bikramjit Singh, already arrested, and Avtar.
According to DGP, Avtar’s has links with Harmeet Singh Happy alas Ph.D, the self- styled chief of ISI-backed KLF, based in Pakistan.
Giving details, DGP Arora,said that the leads provided by Bikramjit Singh, led the police to arrest 32-year-old Avtar Singh from Khiala village in PS Lopoke, from the tube well motor shed of his uncle, Trilok Singh, early Saturday morning.
Avtar, is a graduate and has been wearing Nihang Bana (Sikh religious costume) since 2012. He was practicing as a quack (fake doctor) in his village, but has no criminal history, said the DGP.
Both the pistols which the perpetrators were carrying on the day of attack have been recovered on the disclosures of Avtar. The weapons recovered include two Pistols (.32 bore), one of them US made, four magazines and 25 live rounds, said the DGP, adding that the recovery followed the arrest of one Shabnamdeep from Patiala.
Initial investigations have revealed that Avtar was contacted on WhatsApp, a few months ago, by one Javed, who claimed to be a Pakistani national from Dubai.
A few months ago, Javed put Avtar in touch with one Happy who claimed to be based in Pakistan. According to Avtar, Happy motivated him to carry out terrorist acts in Punjab, on the lines of targeted killings of RSS and Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) workers in Punjab in 2016-17, the police said.

According to police, Avtar disclosed that on 16 November, he and Bikram met at village Dhariwal, planned the attack in detail, and decided to execute it on 18 Nov. Avtar has corroborated the sequence of events of the attack, as disclosed by Bikramjit
During initial investigations, the accused has also disclosed that he initially got radicalised in the wake of the 2007 incident when the DSS chief appeared in public in the attire of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Thereafter, he began to participate regularly in protests against the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) in his local area. He was an active member of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee and regularly participated in the protests organized by the Satkar Committee.
Avtar has further disclosed that he was staunchly opposed to ‘Derawad’ and all the self-styled Gurus, such as DSS, DJJS, Piara Singh Bhaniarewala and controversial Sikh preachers, including Sarabjit Singh Dhunda, Inderjit Singh Ghagga etc, and was also against the Hindu Right Wing and its leaders/workers.
Harmeet has emerged as the most active leader of Punjab based outfits working under the watch and directions of the Pakistan's ISI, which is determined to spread terrorism in the border State of Punjab by radicalising poor and gullible youth of the State and motivating them to carry out terrorist actions, the DGP stated.
Responding to a question, the DGP said there had been only two cases of terrorist attack in Punjab this year, including the Maqsudan police station attack and the Adliwal grenade attack. These were both sensitive cases, said the DGP, assuring the people of Punjab that nobody would be allowed to harm them.
The DGP expressed concern over the reported movement of terrorists from J&K to Punjab but asserted that the police was keeping close tabs on all such movements.
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