‘Drones from Pak deliver terror weapons in Punjab’

Punjab Police on Sunday busted a terrorist module of the revived Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), backed by a Pakistan and Germany based terror group, that was conspiring to unleash a series of terrorist strikes in Punjab and adjoining states.

Drones may have been used to deliver terror weapons from across the border, Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta suggested on Sunday.

Police teams were also successful in recovery of huge cache of arms including 5 AK-47 rifles, pistols, satellite phones and 9 hand grenades.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that he has decided to hand over further investigations in the case to NIA to ensure that the entire conspiracy is fully and expeditiously unravelled.

With initial investigations revealing the use of drones to deliver terrorists weapons and communication hardware across the border, Amarinder urged the central government to direct the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Border Security Force (BSF) to launch necessary counter-measures to check any further threat from drones to the border state of Punjab.

According to Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta, the weapons were suspected to have been delivered recently across the Indo-Pak border from Pakistan over drones launched by the Pakistan establishment, the Pakistan ISI, and the state-sponsored Jihadi and pro-Khalistani terrorist outfits working under its command.

Gupta said that the large-scale infiltration appeared to have been aimed at scaling terrorism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and the Indian hinterland, in the wake of the recent developments in the Valley.

Gupta disclosed that the operation was based on different inputs gathered from sources that activists of the banned KZF planned to carry out multiple terrorist strikes in J&K, Punjab and other states.

In the operation carried out AIG counterintelligence (Amritsar) Ketan Baliram Patil along with various Punjab police teams based in Chandigarh, four module members have been arrested and a large quantity of arms, ammunition, explosives and communication devices, have been seized.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said that the module was backed by Pakistan-based chief of KZF, Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta and his Germany-based associate Gurmeet Singh alias Bagga, who had re-organised their terrorist group to revive terrorism in Punjab.

With the help of local sleeper cells, they had spotted, radicalized and recruited local members, besides arranging funds and sophisticated weapons from across the border for operationalising the local module members.