ISI-backed module busted in Punjab, cache of weapons & heroin seized
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Oct, 2022 11:42 AM
Chandigarh, Oct 4 (IANS) With the Punjab Police having further intensified vigil and alertness against anti-social elements ahead of the festival season, Amritsar Rural Police has busted an ISI-backed narco-terrorism module with seizure of a cache of weapons and 2 kg heroin.
Its main operative has been arrested after recovering arms and explosives from his possession, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav SAID here on Tuesday.
The module is being jointly operated by Canada-based Lakhbir Singh, alias Landa, Pakistan-based Harvinder Singh Rinda and Italy-based Harpreet Singh, alias Happy.
The arrested accused has been identified as Yograj Singh, alias Yog, a resident of Rajoke village in Tarn Taran district. The police have also identified five more accomplices, who were part of the module in carrying out illegal activities across Punjab and adjoining states.
The police have recovered one RDX-loaded tiffin box fabricated into an improvised explosive device (IED) or tiffin bomb; two sophisticated AK-56 assault rifles along with two magazines and 30 cartridges; one .30 bore pistol along with six cartridges; and 2 kg heroin from the accused.
DGP Yadav said the arrested accused is the main operative of this module and wanted by the state police and central agencies in at least five criminal cases, including the one wherein five AK-47 assault rifles were seized in Tarn Taran in September 2019.
He said preliminary investigations have revealed that the cross-border operations of arms-explosives-drugs smuggling was mainly handled by Yograj on the directions of terrorists Landa, Rinda and Happy and jailed smuggler Gurpavitar, alias Sai of Lakhna in Tarn Taran district.
Yograj had been active in recovery and further delivery of consignments of arms and drugs at a large scale, he added.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Swapan Sharma said the Police have made a major strike in exposing the members of Landa-Rinda terror module.
In the present module, the police have managed to identify five operatives of the gang and a manhunt has been launched to nab them, he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has sought around 27,000 security personnel from the central government, mostly Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
The fresh Pakistani provocation came a day after the Indian Army said it had "proactively" dominated the Line of Control (LoC) with "punitive fire assaults" against military posts and terror launch pads.
A 16-year-old boy reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his house in Burail, Sector 45, this morning. The victim was working as a helper at a tyre shop in Mani Majra.
Punjabis’ tryst with the ubiquitous “AK 47” seems to be never ending. The name of the Russian-made assault rifle that had virtually become a household name during the days of terrorism in Punjab decades ago, still catches the people’s fancy.
An Indian national who was found guilty of the murder of her former lover’s fiancee in 2015 has had her conviction quashed by an Australian court and will face a retrial.
At least 21 people were killed and eight others were injured when a bus ferrying pilgrims plunged into the Bhagirathi near Nalupani in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, the police said.
