Terror groups roping in gangsters, say police as state sees 6 blasts in 25 days
Moving beyond drugs, Punjab has witnessed a rise in terror activities, especially attacks on the police establishments in the past 25 days.
As many as six such incidents have taken place since November 23 in the Majha region. Fortunately, no loss of life has been reported so far as the explosives did not cause much damage or didn’t explode.
DGP Gaurav Yadav today visited Amritsar and Jalandhar to take stock of the situation. Senior officials concede that targeting of police stations or posts seemed to be a new strategy of pro-Khalistan groups operation out of Pakistan with the help of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). A number of foreign-based gangsters are actively involved in helping terror outfits — Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF).
They claimed that increased smuggling of weapons and explosives via drones from Pakistan were being used to target security establishments. Top police officials involved in investigation and counter-intelligence claimed that they had prevented several attacks and managed to identify and arrest culprits behind most blasts.
“There is an attempt to attack the police stations and cause terror. We have pre-empted some strikes and caught the culprits. Terror groups are using network of gangsters and gullible youth carry out such acts for drugs or money. Pakistan’s ISI is planning these attacks. We are strong enough in defending the state,” said a senior police official.
The first incident took place on November 23 when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was found planted outside the Ajnala police station. The sixth incident took place today outside the Islamabad police station in Amritsar.
On December 6, the Amritsar police and the Counter-Intelligence unit arrested 10 operatives of Pakistan-based terrorist Harvinder Rinda of the BKI and foreign-based gangster Happy Passian, besides gangsters Jeevan Fauji and Jashanpreet Singh, alias Lal, with weapons and grenades.
Passian is also named in the Ajnala IED case. His co-conspirator is said to be foreign-based gangster Gurdev Singh, alias Jaisel, alias Pehalwan. Cops arrested two operatives, including a juvenile and seized two Chinese P86 hand greandes and Turkey-made Zigana pistols.
