M A I N   N E W S

Make the border more secure, pleads Punjab
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

TERROR TRAIL IN JULY Khanna police arrested Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) militant Harminder Singh responsible for October 2007 Shingar cinema bomb blasts on July 18. Three associates of Harminder arrested with 3 kg RDX and one AK 47 rifle. Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) militant Pargat Singh arrested by Patiala police. Five Babbar Khalsa militants, including a French national, arrested by Amritsar police on July 28. Two AK 47 rifles seized from them.

Chandigarh, July 29
Alarmed at increased militant activities in the state, Punjab is pleading with the Centre to plug the international border with Pakistan ‘more effectively’.

Seizures of narcotics, arms, fake currency, point out senior officials, have all gone up in recent months, indicating heightened activity from across the border. And although much of the border has been fenced, more effective measures are needed to curb infiltration, they felt.

Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal told TNS on Thursday that he would be writing to the PM and plead for more intensive patrolling. “We have reports that militants as well as drugs are being pushed into Punjab from Pakistan,” he said , and added that, if necessary, more security personnel need to be deployed on the border.

Punjab would also demand better use of technology and more sophisticated cameras on the border, he said.

Police and Intelligence sources said that recent arrest of militants indicate clear attempts to revive terrorism in the State. They claimed that radical elements across the border were feeling the pressure from the ISI and were trying to increase terrorist activities in Punjab.

Emerging trends show that youngsters who are desperate to settle abroad are being instigated to indulge in terrorist activists. Rattandeep Singh, who had planted a bomb in a car in Amritsar recently, was found to have his family in Canada and he himself was keen to save enough money to enable him to migrate.

The sources said militants also wanted to take their families out of the country while citing the case of Harminder Singh, who was involved in the Shingar cinema blast of October 2007. It is claimed that Harminder returned to make arrangements for his family to migrate.

Most of the militants are flying to India from either Malaysia or Nepal after procuring travel documents from Pakistan. Sources said the militants now prefer to land in South Indian cities and then make their way to Punjab, making it a little more difficult for law-enforcement agencies to nab them.