Amritsar: An IED and some Indian currency notes were found in a bag lying on the Attari-Bachiwind road near the India-Pakistan border in Punjab’s Amritsar on Friday. A senior police officer gave this information. The Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police launched a search operation and recovered the bag based on a specific information about narcotics and explosives just a month before the assembly elections in the state.
The seizure comes at a time when an IED containing RDX and ammonium nitrate was found inside an unclaimed bag at Ghazipur Phool Mandi in the national capital. Police have cordoned off the area after the IED was recovered in Amritsar.
Rashpal Singh, Assistant Inspector General of STF, who was present at the spot, told PTI over phone, “… IED weighing 5 kg… was found in a bag on Attari-Bachiwind road. Some Indian notes have also been found. He said experts and members of the Bomb Disposal Squad have been called to the spot and further investigation is on.
Days after a terror module backed by the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) was busted, the Punjab Police on Thursday said it has seized arms and ammunition based on disclosures made by a key accused in the two recent Pathankot grenade incidents. Apart from this, 2.5 kg RDX has been seized.
Director General of Police VK Bhavra said here on Thursday that the police have also recovered 12 cartridges of AK-47 rifles along with a detonator, a detonating cord and five explosive fuses. The police had said that the explosive material was to be used to make the IED. “The recovery was made on the basis of the disclosed statement of accused Amandeep Kumar alias Minister of village Lakhanpal of Gurdaspur, who is the prime accused in two recent incidents of grenade attack in Pathankot,” the DGP said in a statement.
Kumar was among the six ISYF members arrested by the police on Monday. According to a statement released on Thursday, he has confessed to throwing grenades in two separate incidents in Pathankot. Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar senior superintendent of police Kanwardeep Kaur said teams were sent to Gurdaspur district after Kumar’s revelations and the explosive material was confiscated. According to the prime accused, these were to be used in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
He said the consignment was delivered to Kumar by the self-styled chief of ISYF (Rode) Lakhbir Singh Rode. Rode is currently in Pakistan and had sent the consignment to his companion Sukhpreet Singh alias Sukh, a resident of Kharal village in Dinanagar.
According to the statement, since June-July last year, Rode has been prominently involved in activating a series of terror modules through its network in Punjab and abroad. Police on Monday said they have cracked the case related to the grenade blast outside the gates of an army cantonment in Pathankot by busting a large terror module backed by the outfit with the arrest of six members of the ISYF. The ISYF is believed to be backed by Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.