With the arrest of a highly radicalised operative identified as Saroop Singh of village Johal Dhai Wala in Tarn Taran, linked with foreign-based terrorist entities, Punjab Police thwarted another possible terrorist attack in the border state. The police have also recovered 2 live Chinese-made P-86 mark hand grenades from his possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta here on Tuesday.
The DGP said that Saroop Singh was apprehended by Tarn Taran Police on suspicion at a checkpoint on Amritsar-Harike road on Monday.
The development came at a time when the Punjab has been witnessing huge influx of Grenades and RDX laden tiffin boxes besides recovery of other arms and ammunition, signalling major attempts being made by terrorist leaders and anti-national elements based abroad to disturb peace and communal harmony in the border state.
It is pertinent to mention that on August 8, 2021, the Amritsar Rural police had recovered five hand grenades of similar mark alongwith tiffin bomb from village Daleke in Lopoke, while, the State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar on August 16, 2021, had recovered two hand grenades of same make and model (P-86), alongwith other weapons from Amritpal Singh and Shammi. Similarly, the Kapurthala Police had also recovered a similar consignment consisting of two live hand grenades, one live tiffin bomb and other explosive material from the possession of Gurmukh Singh Brar and his associate from Phagwara on August 20, 2021.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said that during preliminary investigations, Saroop Singh has revealed that he came in contact with foreign based terror handlers over the social media and was further radicalised, cultivated by them and motivated to carry out terror acts in Punjab," he said.
Saroop further disclosed that his foreign based handlers had arranged a consignment of 2 hand grenades for him, said the DGP, adding that Saroop had already conducted recce of a few sensitive targets in Amritsar and Ludhiana. A training video sent by his foreign handlers explaining how to successfully explode a hand-grenade has also been recovered from the mobile phone of the accused," he said.
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DGP Dinkar Gupta said that further investigations were on to explore the wider terror network and their plans. Preliminary investigations suggest that all these consignments are being sent from across the border by different terror organisations for carrying out terrorist strikes in the border state of Punjab.
Meanwhile, the FIR No 217 dated August 30, 2021 has been registered under sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosives Substances (Amendment) Act at City Police Station Tarn Taran.