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Punjab police foil terrorist mayhem, arrest two desperadoes and seize explosives

The police have foiled a terrorist plan to carry out bomb explosions and harm top political leaders, including Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, with the arrest of two terrorists in front of a city gurdwara-cum-hospital on Tuesday evening.

Stating this at a press conference in Jalandhar on Thursday, Punjab police chief P C Dogra said 12 kg of RDX, two hand grenades, seven ABC timers, 12 electronic detonators, 10 non-electronic detonators, nine pencil timers, one Mauser pistol besides dry cells, batteries and cordex wire were recovered following the interrogation of Baljinder Singh alias Neeta and Dhian Singh.

Both the accused, who are members of the International Sikh Youth Federation (Chaheru group), have since been remanded to police custody till February 15 by a local court for further interrogation and investigation into the diabolical plan having roots abroad.

Baljinder Singh, a senior secondary class dropout from a city college, had been deported from Britain in June, while Dhian Singh, a resident of Sangrawan village in Kapurthala district, was a school dropout.

Dogra revealed that Dhian Singh, who was caught and questioned by the Amritsar police in September-October, was let off after interrogation since a police spotter failed to recognise him.

Of the 12 kg of RDX, five kg was recovered on Thursday at his behest from his village pond where he had concealed it after one Shahbaz passed it on, he added.

The DGP said the police had mistaken Dhian Singh to be a human bomb, as he had tied five kg of RDX around his waist for transporting it to his village from Amritsar, where he took delivery of it.

Dogra said their three co-conspirators, including an expert in fabricating improvised explosive devices, escaped when they sighted their accomplices being caught from outside the gurdwara.

Denying that they slipped through a police cordon, Dogra said Baljinder and Dhian were caught and bundled into vehicles by policemen in mufti, while the cordon was laid later. One of the escaped terrorists rang up his principals in Britain informing them about the capture, he added.

Dogra said five terrorists were to meet in the gurdwara to plan their action for which they were to receive instructions from abroad on February 13.

Asked if the prime minister, who was intermittently campaigning in Jalandhar since January 21, was the target, the police chief replied, "'I cannot say 'no'." He said since instructions regarding the subversive activities were to be delivered on February 13, the police could only surmise about the actual operation. However, he said they were to carry out a chain of major violent incidents on the eve of elections in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

He said the subversives's plan to revive terrorism in Punjab and other parts of the country was conceived and organised by anti-India elements settled abroad. They were to carry out the plan with the active support of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Baljinder, a city resident, who had left the country five years ago on a genuine passport, sneaked into Britain without a valid visa via Moscow and other European countries and it was for this reason that he was deported in June, according to the DGP.

Asked if Baljinder was trapped in the ISYF net by its activists settled abroad, Dogra said the accused had fundamentalist orientation and had got baptised in a gurdwara in Britain. Money also tempted him into joining subversive activities of the ISYF abroad, he added.

Dogra said the seizure at Baljinder's behest was made from the New Deshmesh Nagar residence of one Jasbir Singh near Rama Mandi on Wednesday. With the seizure of two consignments of RDX and accessories needed for fabricating bombs, the police had recovered all that had been delivered, he added.

He said the identity of the three accomplices had been ascertained and a massive manhunt launched to capture them.

The police have registered a case under the Explosives and Arms Act, and charges of hatching criminal conspiracy against the accused, both of whom are in their mid-twenties.

UNI

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