Petrol bomb attacks on Shiv Sena leaders' houses: BKI creating network of sleeper cells in state, says cop

After the arrest of four suspects in the cases pertaining to petrol bomb attacks on Ludhiana Shiv Sena leaders Yogesh Bakshi and Harkirat Singh Khurana, the interrogation of the suspects had spilled the beans. The suspects had admitted before the police that they were sleeper cells of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and they carried out tasks assigned to them in lieu of money by the BKI, being operated by foreign-based individuals Harjit Singh, alias Laddi, and Sabi.

Those arrested were identified as Jaswinder Singh, alias Binder, a resident of Boothgarh in Ludhiana; Ravinder Pal Singh, alias Ravi (38), Manish Sahid, alias Sanju (30), and Anil Kumar, alias Honey (27), residents of Rahon in Nawanshahr. Police teams also recovered two mobile phones and impounded the red TVS Raider motorcycle (bearing registration no. Punjab 32 AC 3770) used to commit the crimes.

“The suspects are basically the sleeper cells of the banned organisation, BKI. One of them, Manish, is directly connected with Harjit Singh, the foreign-based individual increasing the count of sleeper cells in the state. Besides the four nabbed miscreants, it is being suspected that the BKI has already created a large number of sleeper cells in the state to carry out similar attacks on Hindu and other religious leaders and questioning of the suspects have given vital information about the sleeper cell network of the BKI. BKI’s sleeper cell network includes all age group people, mostly youths and petty criminals,” said a senior police official on the condition of anonymity.

The police official said all four suspects were petty criminals and they only took a few thousand rupees to carry out the task assigned to them. Some money was also received by them from the BKI and the police were making all efforts to get details about the mode of money transfer and exact amount they got for throwing petrol bombs at houses of Sena leaders. Their bank accounts were also being scanned.

“So far, it seems BKI handler Harjit has given the target of petrol bomb attack on houses of two Sena leaders of Ludhiana. It is quite possible after these attacks, the BKI had to give more targets but with the arrests of the suspects those plans have been foiled by the police,” said the official, who is a member of the probe team.