Chandigarh, Nov 21 (UNI) In a major breakthrough, Punjab police on Wednesday arrested one of the two perpetrators of grenade terror attack on Nirankari Bhawan in Amritsar, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh stated.
On November 17, unknown assailants had lobbed grenade on a religious congregation in Nirankari Bhavan at village Adliwal near Amritsar, in which three people were killed and 15 injured.
The suspect Bikramjit Singh alias Bikram (26) of Dhariwal village falling under Rajasansi police station was arrested early this morning from near Loharka village, the Chief Minister said.
Giving details on Sunday’s incident, the Chief Minister said that preliminary investigations and CCTV footage of the incident had led to the arrest of Bikram, who has identified his accomplice as Avtar Singh Khalsa (32) of Chak Mishri Khan village, Lopoke (Ajnala), Amritsar.
Bikram, an operative of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), has given significant information indicating that the grenade was provided to the assailants by Pakistan based Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harmeet Singh Happy alias Ph.D.
However, the Chief Minister categorically ruled out any religious agenda behind the attack and described Sunday’s attack on Nirankari Bhawan as yet another attempt by ISI and Pak establishment to carry out terrorist actions in Punjab to disturb the peace in the State.
According to police, on November 17, Bikram has disclosed that other suspect Avtar Singh successfully slinked into the Satsang Bhawan complex through the open gate, along with the sangat which had just reached there and he himself managed to subdue and take control, at gunpoint, of the two sewadars who had been deployed at the two gate-posts of the Satsang Bhawan complex.
Bikram further revealed that after hurling the grenade, both of them fled on Bikram’s motorcycle and reached Avtar’s village. After changing his clothes and appearance, Bikram drove back to his village on his motorcycle.
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said Bikram’s two-wheeler which he had been used in the attack, has also been recovered.
An FIR under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 341 (wrongful restraint), 452 (trespass), 427 (mischief) and section 25 Arms Act, 3/4/5/6 Explosive Substances Act, 13 UAPA has been registered at Rajasansi police station in the Sunday attack case, police said.
According to Bikram, Avtar Singh was in touch with Harmeet Singh Happy in Pakistan, who had got the hand grenade dumped near the orchard near Majitha through some of his other associate(s). Bikram has revealed that the geo-location details as well as pictures of the dump location were sent to Avtar on his mobile to facilitate the retrieval of the hand grenade.
Harmeet Singh had earlier come to notice for supply of a hand-grenade (Arges Type HG-84) of the same specifications to Shabnamdeep Singh of Samana (Patiala), a self-styled chief of Khalistan Gaddar Force (KGF), who was arrested by Punjab Police (Patiala) on October 31, this year, police said.
The suspect had earlier masterminded the conspiracy to carry out the targeted killings of RSS/Shiv Sena/DSS leaders and workers and a Christian Pastor in Ludhiana and Jalandhar in 2016-2017, in active collaboration with Pakistani establishment and the ISI, Capt Amarinder stated.
“It was in ISI’s interest to keep the border disturbed to ensure internal peace in Pakistan,” he said.
Attempts by ISI and Pakistan establishment to forge linkages between Punjabi and Kashmiri terrorist groups is a matter of serious security concern for Punjab, said the Chief Minister, adding that the State police was working closely with central agencies to check the spread of such forces.
He said that his government was committed to ensuring that nobody was allowed to disturb the state’s hard-earned peace and harmony.
The Chief Minister pointed out that there had been only two terror attacks in the state in 2018, the Maqsudan Police Station attack and Sunday’s incident, and stated that both had been successfully solved by the police.
Punjab police stated that it had earlier recovered five such hand grenades, as part of a huge consignment comprising AK 47 rifle (1), MP 9 rifle (1), Pistols (7), which had been sent by Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) across the Indo-Pak border and recovered from the terrorist module of Sher Singh- Mann Singh on May 21, 2017.
Punjab police asserted that HG 84 hand grenade is produced by Arges of Austria, and also manufactured in Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) of Pakistan (as the "84-P2A1"). Such grenades are commonly used by the Armies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Austria.
HG 84 is a destructive type of grenade, which causes fragmentation after the explosion and has effective range of 30 meter radius. These are mainly used to attack and kill a gathering of persons. Such grenades have been used in J&K in the past, Punjab police said.
Since March 2017, at-least three arms consignments, pushed into Punjab by Pak ISI in collaboration with Chiefs of different Pak based Sikh militant outfits, such as International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), have been recovered by the Punjab Police. These consignments consisted of AK-47 Rifles (5), MP 9 Rifle (1), Pistols (10), hand-grenades (11), police stated.
UNI DB PS 1911