KTF module busted, 3 held with tiffin bombs in Bhikhiwind village

Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, September 23

The district police have busted another militant module allegedly backed by the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) with the arrest of its three activists from Bhagwanpur village in Bhikhiwind (Tarn Taran) on Wednesday night.

The police recovered two boxes packed in foam which appeared to be tiffin bombs, two hand grenades (86P) and three 9-mm pistols from their possession. This is the sixth tiffin bomb recovered in Punjab in the past one and a half months.

The district police said the arrested suspects had been identified as Kanwarpal Singh, Kulwinder Singh and Kamalpreet Singh, all residents of Moga. Kanwarpal disclosed that he had returned from Canada two weeks back.

Bhikhiwind SHO Navdeep Singh Bhatti said the accused were produced in the court of Guarav Gupta, JMIC, Patti, which sent them in three-day police remand till September 25.

SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman revealed the suspected were between the age of 22 and 23 years. Though no case has been found to be registered against them, their

criminal background

was being verified.

The development came four months after the Punjab Police arrested three activists of the KTF, involved in several heinous crimes, including the murder of a Dera man and firing on a priest. The trio had been found acting on the directions of

KTF’s Canada-based chief

Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The suspects were arrested when a police party intercepted a Swift car bearing and arrested the trio. One of the suspected pointed his revolver at the police party. SSP Opinderjit Singh said preliminary investigations revealed the module members had reached Tarn Taran to retrieve some dumped militant hardware consignment, on the directions of Canada-based Arshdeep Dalla, who is a close aide of Hardeep Nijjar.

The suspects recovered a hand grenade from Mari Kamboke and the second from Chung village, which were buried under the soil. Notably, Kamaljit and Lovepreet, who were earlier arrested in Moga, had introduced the accused to Arshdeep.

A case under Section 307 of the IPC, Section 475 of the Explosives Substance Amendment Act, Sections 13, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act has been filed at the Bhikhiwind police station.

Hand grenades, pistols seized

• The police recovered two boxes packed in foam which appeared to be tiffin bombs, two hand grenades (86P) and three 9-mm pistols from the suspects’ possession
• This is the sixth tiffin bomb recovered in Punjab in the past one and a half months. The suspects have been identified as Kanwarpal Singh, Kulwinder Singh and Kamalpreet Singh