M A I N   N E W S

Babbar Khalsa plot to disturb peace foiled
14.7 kg of RDX seized in R’sthan in less than a week
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service

Jaipur, September 14
With the seizure of 14.7 kg of RDX along with other arms and ammunition in Barmer in less than a week, the Rajasthan police has thwarted nefarious designs of Babbar Khalsa to execute fresh attacks in the country.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) made the first recovery last Tuesday after intercepting messages of notorious smuggler Lunia (alias Sodha Khan) about delivery of a major arms and explosives consignment. Though Lunia managed to give police the slip, the latter recovered 6 kg of RDX, eight foreign-made pistols, 400 units of various magazines and cartridges, 12 detonators and huge quantity of fuse wire from Marudi village in Barmer.

However, the police managed to arrest Lunia from Bijrar police station area last Saturday after he was tracked down by intelligence agencies. Jodhpur range IG Bhupendra Dak said Lunia’s two aides -- Nazir Khan and his namesake -- have also been arrested.

Following Lunia’s interrogation on Sunday, the police seized 8.7 kg of RDX, eight detonators, eight magazines, 596 bullets, 500-feet long safety wires, four batteries and four foreign-made pistols. The total consignment (including RDX) is the biggest haul in Rajasthan till now.

Barmer SP Navjyoti Gogoi said the consignment was supposed to be delivered to Babbar Khalsa terrorist organisation but the police seized it before the outfit’s terrorists could lay their hands on it. According to him, Lunia and his accomplices had smuggled the explosives from Pakistan via Rajasthan border.

One glance at the sheer quantity of explosives and the kind of preparations they had made is enough to indicate the scale of destruction that the terrorists wanted to cause in the country. Police sources said long safety-fuse wires, ranging from 50 to 90 feet, battery and detonators were ready-to-use and could be planted easily, causing huge loss of life and property. The pistols were China-made while the timer devices were so advanced the blast could be triggered even after 184 days of fixing it, they added.

This is not the first time Lunia’s involvement has come to fore in a major arms and explosives smuggling case. His name also figured in the arms and explosives smuggling case in which the BSF and the police had foiled a terror attack at the American Centre in Kolkata in 2002.