Describing the arrest of four Pakistan's ISI-backed terrorists and preventing a major terror attack as a well coordinated operation, Punjab Police on Thursday said they successfully averted a possible terrorist attack. However, police officials refuted claims of attempts by the ISI to revive terrorism in the state, saying such acts were part of its nefarious designs. The arrested accused were identified as Gurpreet Singh, Amandeep Singh and Parminder Singh, residents of Vinjoke village in Zira, Ferozepur; and Bhupinder Singh of Bhatian village in Ludhiana. They were arrested at Karnal in Haryana by the state police following inputs from the Punjab police.
Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab V.K. Bhawra told the media here that a Central agency earlier shared an input that some suspects, who may be carrying explosive material and weapons are moving in the border districts of Fazilka and Ferozepur. Subsequent to this input, police teams led by Commandant Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh and SHO (Fazilka) Satinderdeep Singh Brar along with teams from the Central agency were on a manhunt on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday to nab these suspects, he said. The teams had jointly identified suspected locations in the districts of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Faridkot and SAS Nagar.
The DGP said the suspects were found to be moving in the area of Ferozepur and later they started going in a white Innova vehicle DL1VB7869 towards Ludhiana. "The suspects took the national highway and started moving towards Ambala, when acting promptly, Punjab Police shared the development with Haryana Police, which managed to intercept the vehicle in Karnal and arrested the accused persons with IEDs," the DGP told IANS. During preliminary interrogation, the accused have revealed that they were working for Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Harwinder Singh, alias Rinda. Rinda, a notorious gangster active in Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Haryana, is a history-sheeter and is wanted by the Punjab Police in heinous crimes, including murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion and snatching.