Punjab police busts Pak-backed terror module, two Khalistani operatives nabbed

A German-made MP5 sub-machine gun, a 9 mm pistol with four magazines, and two mobile phones with a host of incriminatory conversations, messages, photographs were seized from the duo.

The mobile phones revealed suspicious transactions with Pakistan-based elements, including photographs, voice messages, as well as the coordinates of a particular geo-location, DGP Dinkar Gupta said on Friday, briefing media persons about the breakthrough.

In addition, a large variety of posts and web-links, connected with the formation of Khalistan, were also found on the mobile phone of Gurmeet Singh, who has been in regular touch with the ISI and anti-India elements sponsored by the Pakistan establishment, he said.

A case has been registered under sections 120B, 121 IPC, 25, 54, 59 Arms Act r/w 13, 17, 18, 18B, 20 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Giving details, Gupta said that acting on a tip-off from the general public late on Thursday night, an Amritsar Rural police team raided a spot near Gurdaspuria Dhaba on the GT Road falling under Jandiala police station and apprehended Gurmeet Singh and Vikram Singh.

According to the DGP, Gurmeet Singh (44) of Ganda Singh colony, Amritsar, divulged during questioning that the photographs and voice messages had been shared with them by the Pakistan-based handlers to locate and pick up sophisticated weapons kept at that location by their associates.

He revealed that their Pakistan based handlers had been instructing them to carry out terror attacks in Punjab, especially targeting of persons belonging to a particular community, to further the cause of Khalistan. He said that he had visited Pakistan about three years ago to meet his handlers.

Gurmeet Singh was earlier involved in a case of fraud with his brother, and a case was registered against him in Police Station B-Division, Amritsar.

Efforts were being made to fix the identities of the Pakistan-based mentors and handlers of the terrorist module, said Gupta, adding that further investigations to unearth the full linkages and ramifications of the terror module, including those based across the border, were in progress.

The DGP said the Punjab Police was working 24x7 to thwart the nefarious designs of anti-India elements trying to disturb the state’s communal harmony and law and order, in furtherance of their separatist and divisive agenda.