Patiala, August 17
The Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Paramraj Singh Umranangal, today said “terrorists” Avtar Singh Taari and Gurinder Singh Kala who had alleged that he had been forcing them to work for him were in league with senior police officials. He would submit a report in this regard to the Director General of Police (DGP) tomorrow.

Talking to TNS, Mr Umranangal said some police officials were conspiring against him. He said he would specifically give their names to the DGP.

The SSP said both Taari and Kala had been actively working for the Al Umar terrorist outfit and that they had not been framed as alleged in the case in which two Kashmiri militants had been arrested. He said the facts of the case had been conveyed to both Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and DGP A. A. Siddiquie, both of whom had instructed him to conduct raids to catch the two “terrorists”.

The SSP claimed Taari and Kala had met newsmen at the Chandigarh house of a senior lawyer, in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He said raids were being conducted to ascertain their whereabouts. When asked about the authority letters given to the “terrorists” by police officials, he said a former SSP of Patiala might have given such an authority letter to Taari, but he did not know about it. He had given no such authorisation to the ‘’terrorist”. He denied links with both men and said he was ready to face any action if proved otherwise.

Mr Umranangal also said both had been living in Chandigarh and committing crimes in Patiala. This he had stopped after taking over as SSP.