Punjab Police averts another likely terrorist attack, highly radicalized operative held with hand grenades
With the arrest of a highly radicalised operativeidentified as Ranjit Singh of village Sohal in Tarn Taran, linked with foreignbased terrorist entities, Punjab Police foiled another possible terroristattack in the border state. The police have also recovered two Chinese madeP-86 hand grenades and two pistols along with live cartridges besides a blackcoloured Royal Enfield motorcycle bearing registration number PB02-DA-6685 fromhis possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Iqbal Preet SinghSahota here on Wednesday.
The DGP said that acting on intelligence inputs about thepresence of Ranjit Singh in the area of Amritsar, special teams from SSOCAmritsar were sent to the specified area to spot the suspect and Ranjit Singhwas apprehended.
This development came at a moment when Punjab has beenwitnessing huge inflow of hand grenades and tiffin bombs along with otherweapons. Recently, the state has also seen a couple of grenade blasts includingat CIA Nawanshahr and Cantonment area in Pathankot besides the recovery of anunexploded hand grenade from Zira area.
DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota said that, duringinvestigation, Ranjit revealed that he had formed a group named “Kaum De Rakhe”to collect funds on the pretext of social work and through this group, he gotin touch with various radical and terrorist elements based in UK and othercountries through social media and extended his help to form sleeper cellsunder the garb of his social work. Ranjit further disclosed that recently hehad received a consignment of arms and explosives, and was planning to carryout a terror strike to create an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness in theborder state, he said.
The DGP said that Ranjit was also part of a group, whichhad vandalised statues of folk dancers installed at the heritage street leadingto Golden Temple Amritsar on January 15, 2020. Ranjit was arrested by thepolice in a statue vandalising case and was presently on bail, he added.
ADGP Internal Security RN Dhoke said that further effortsare being made to ascertain the identity of the UK end, who had arranged theconsignment and also his other Indian associates.
Meanwhile, FIR number 24 dated 23.11.2021 has beenregistered under sections 25 of the Arms Act, sections 3, 4 and 5 of theExplosive Substances Amendment Act and sections 120 and 120-B of the IndianPenal Act at Police Station SSOC Amritsar.