Punjab Police busted a major terror module of ISYF behind grenade attack on Pathankot Army Camp

New Delhi, January 11

The Punjab Police busted a major terror module with the arrest of six operatives behind the hand grenade attacks, including the one at Pathankot Army Camp. The terror module is allegedly backed by the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). 

The accused have been identified as Amandeep alias Mantri of Lakhanpal village in Gurdaspur, Gurwinder Singh alias Gindi of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Parminder Kumar alias Rohit alias Rohta of Kharal village in Gurdaspur, Rajinder Singh alias Malhi alias Nikku of Gunnupur village in Gurdaspur, Harpreet Singh alias Dholki of Gotpokar village in Gurdaspur and Raman Kumar of Ghazikot village in Gurdaspur,

DGP Punjab V K Bhawra said, “The accused revealed that they were directly in touch with the self-proclaimed Chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode and his close aides identified as Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal and Sukhpreet alias Sukh for planning terrorist attacks.

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr) police have also recovered six hand grenades (86 P), one pistol (9mm), one rifle (.30 bore) along with live bullets and magazines from their possession. 

The officials stated that the entire cache of the recovered hand grenades, arms and ammunition were pushed in from across the International Border by Lakhbir Rode and the arrested accused had been tasked with further attacking pre-identified targets, mainly police and defence establishments, religious places etc.

The officials added that the accused have confessed to have lobbed hand grenades two times in Pathankot. 

As per the case details, in two instances, some unidentified persons had hurled hand grenades in near Chakki Pull on November 11, 2021 at about 9.30 pm, while another grenade attack took place outside Triveni Dwar, 21 sub-area of Army at Pathankot on November 21, 2021 at about 9 pm. The police had registered two FIRs in this matter.  

In addition to the grenade attack, the investigators found out that Rode was also found in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh at Bhikhiwind on October 16, 2020, besides in the recovery of tiffin IED, RDX, arms and ammunition from his relative Gurmukh Singh Rode from Jalandhar in August 2021.

The officials further revealed that Sukhmeetpal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail was also involved in killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh and in the murderous attack on Honey Mahajan at Dhariwal on February 10, 2020. He was deported from Dubai in December 2020. 

Bhikhariwal provided foot-soldiers, arms and ammunition, logistics, funds, etc, for execution of these crimes.