Punjab Police foil possible terrorist attack, one held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 Nov, 2021 12:02 PM
Chandigarh, Nov 24 (IANS) With the arrest of a highly-radicalised operative identified as Ranjit Singh of Tarn Taran, linked with foreign-based terrorist entities, Punjab Police on Wednesday claimed it foiled another possible terrorist attack.
The police have recovered two Chinese made P-86 hand grenades and two pistols along with cartridges, besides a black Royal Enfield motorcycle from his possession, said Director General of Police Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota here.
He said acting on intelligence inputs about the presence of Ranjit Singh in the area of Amritsar, special teams were sent to the specified area to spot the suspect and Ranjit Singh was apprehended.
This development comes at a moment when Punjab has been witnessing huge inflow of hand grenades and tiffin bombs along with other weapons.
Recently, the state has also seen a couple of grenade blasts, including the cantonment area in Pathankot, besides the recovery of an unexploded hand-grenade from Zira area.
The DGP said during investigation, Ranjit Singh 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 got in touch with various radical and terrorist elements based in the UK and other countries through social media.
He said recently Ranjit Singh had received a consignment of arms and explosives, and was planning to carry out a terror strike to create an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness in the border state.
The DGP said Ranjit Singh was part of a group, which had vandalised statues of folk dancers installed at the heritage street leading to the Golden Temple in Amritsar on January 15, 2020.
Arrested in the statue vandalism case, he was presently on bail, he added.
Reports are doing the rounds about absconding godman Swami Nithyananda's legal team is hard at work on the draft of a petition to the UN seeking recognition for his "sovereign nation of Kailaasa".
On Masoodi's query on Farooq Abdullah's house arrest, Singh said: "This is not even house arrest. I would rather say Amit Shah is one of those kind-hearted Home Ministers who has put those people under house arrest in their own houses."
After four months, the authorities on Wednesday decided to restore internet facility on the fixed landline connections in Kashmir, top sources told IANS.
Saying the Sikh community was pained and anguished, the Akali Dal on Tuesday described as "very unfortunate" the statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on not commuting the death sentence of Babbar Khalsa terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
The state-wide facility will be available on DIAL 100, 112 and 181 through which a woman caller will be immediately connected to the Police Control Room (PCR), it said.
