With the arrest of a highly radicalised operativeidentified as Saroop Singh of village Johal Dhai Wala in Tarn Taran, linkedwith foreign-based terrorist entities, Punjab Police thwarted another possibleterrorist attack in the border state. The police have also recovered 2 liveChinese-made P-86 mark hand grenades from his possession, said Director Generalof Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta here on Tuesday.
The DGP said that Saroop Singh was apprehended by TarnTaran Police on suspicion at a checkpoint on Amritsar-Harike road on Monday.
The development came at a time when the Punjab has beenwitnessing huge influx of Grenades and RDX laden tiffin boxes besides recoveryof other arms and ammunition, signalling major attempts being made by terroristleaders and anti-national elements based abroad to disturb peace and communalharmony in the border state.
It is pertinent to mention that on August 8, 2021, theAmritsar Rural police had recovered five hand grenades of similar markalongwith tiffin bomb from village Daleke in Lopoke, while, the State SpecialOperation Cell, Amritsar on August 16, 2021, had recovered two hand grenades ofsame make and model (P-86), alongwith other weapons from Amritpal Singh andShammi. Similarly, the Kapurthala Police had also recovered a similarconsignment consisting of two live hand grenades, one live tiffin bomb and otherexplosive material from the possession of Gurmukh Singh Brar and his associatefrom Phagwara on August 20, 2021.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said that during preliminaryinvestigations, Saroop Singh has revealed that he came in contact with foreignbased terror handlers over the social media and was further radicalised,cultivated by them and motivated to carry out terror acts in Punjab," hesaid.
Saroop further disclosed that his foreign based handlershad arranged a consignment of 2 hand grenades for him, said the DGP, addingthat Saroop had already conducted recce of a few sensitive targets in Amritsarand Ludhiana. A training video sent by his foreign handlers explaining how tosuccessfully explode a hand-grenade has also been recovered from the mobilephone of the accused," he said.
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DGP Dinkar Gupta said that further investigations were onto explore the wider terror network and their plans. Preliminary investigationssuggest that all these consignments are being sent from across the border bydifferent terror organisations for carrying out terrorist strikes in the borderstate of Punjab.
Meanwhile, the FIR No 217 dated August 30, 2021 has beenregistered under sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosives Substances (Amendment)Act at City Police Station Tarn Taran.