M A I N   N E W S

Terror bid foiled in Punjab, four held with arms
Tribune News Service

A new module? Ludhiana railway station: Two 9 mm pistols, cartridges recovered from a youth’s bag. The suspect had alighted from Moori Express and managed to flee Amritsar railway station: One suspect on board Dadar Express held; had concealed pistols inside pillow Bathinda railway station: 3 youth held with country-made weapons

Patiala, October 25
The police today claimed to have foiled a major terror bid ahead of the festive season by arresting four persons armed with sophisticated weapons and ammunition at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Bathinda railway stations.

While three persons were arrested in Bathinda, one was held in Amritsar. Two of the accused were recently deported from the Philippines and Thailand and are suspected to have entered the country through the Nepal border near Uttar Pradesh. The police is now trying to find out whether the accused have any links to other terror modules.

Senior Government Railway Police (GRP) officials said during a special operation passengers, who had alighted from the Moori Express, were checked at the Ludhiana Railway Station and two 9 mm pistols and 10 live rounds were seized from the bag of a youth. The youth, however, managed to escape taking advantage of the heavy rush at the exit gate,” they said.

GRP IG, Rohit Choudhary, said preliminary investigations indicate that the escaped youth may have crossed over into India with weapons from the Nepal border adjoining Rudrapur district in Uttarakhand. “Recovery of a booklet pertaining to Nanakmatha gurdwara (in Rudrapur) from the youth’s bag indicates that he had visited the place before coming to Punjab”, he said.

In a similar operation, GRP officials at the Amritsar Railway Station arrested Amardeep Singh alias Bobby of district Bhind in Madhya Pradesh from Dadar Express. “We have seized two 9 mm pistols he had concealed inside his pillow. A driving licence of Manila was also recovered from his possession”, said the IG.

Drawing a link between the two seizures, the officer said all pistols have a made-in-USA mark on them and these appear to be tampered with. “We are interrogating the accused and trying to identify their local links. Some persons are under the scanner and there could be more arrests in the case,” he said.

Three persons were arrested at the Bathinda Railway station with four country-made pistols. They have been identified as Suresh Kumar, Rakesh Kumar and Avadh Naresh.