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Delhi police seize RDX and arms, arrest Burmese mercenary

The Delhi police seized a cache of arms and ammunition -- including RDX and programmed time devices -- and arrested two people in the densely-populated Punjabi Bagh area, Police Commissioner V N Singh has disclosed.

He said the ammunition, sent from Punjab, was meant to be used against VIPs.

In another operation, police arrested a Burmese mercenary, member of the pro- Pakistan outfit Harkat Ul Ansar, from the Jama Masjid area in Walled City. The mercenary, Abdul Karim alias Karim, 20, had participated in militant operations in the terrorist-infested Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. He, in association with a few others, was responsible for the killing of some army personnel using improvised explosive devices.

Giving details about the arms seizure, Singh said following intelligence reports that a truck carrying a large consignment would be brought from Punjab, police kept track of the vehicle which went from Delhi to Punjab and returned. It was intercepted at Punjabi Bagh.

A search revealed arms, ammunition and explosives concealed between the rim and the tyre of the truck's spare wheel. The consignment included 18 kg RDX, an AK-47 assault rifle, Chinese-made pistols, 230 rounds of cartridges, four PTDs, eight hand grenades and 10 detonators.

The PTDs, known in police circles as ABCD timers, could be used to delay explosions up to 194 days. Asked whether the seizure could be linked to the Inter Service Intelligence operations in the country (PTDs were earlier available with Kashmiri militants only), the police commissioner declined comment. The investigation, he said, was in a preliminary stage.

Singh said the arrested were the residents of Patiala and Sangrur districts in Punjab. The Punjab police has been notified to arrest the sender, a resident of Batala.

During interrogation the two revealed that the consignment was sent to Delhi in pursuance of a conspiracy hatched in jail by a trio -- Gursevak Singh Babla, Mokham Singh and Satwinder alias Twinkle. Mokham Singh belongs to the Babbar Khalsa group. Twinkle, a criminal from Delhi's Karol Bagh, is an associate of Babla and Mokham Singh.

Speaking about the Burmese mercenary, Deputy Commissioner (special cell) Ashok Chand said the arrest took place in Subash Park, following a tip-off.

Karim's interrogation threw up that he joined a militant movement against the Burmese government in 1991 when he was just 13 years old. He, along with his parents and relatives, had to flee the country following pressure from the authorities. They settled in Bangladesh, where he was motivated to fight for the pan Islamic cause and sent to Jammu and Kashmir.

He entered India illegally in 1994. He moved to the terrorist-infested Baramulla district in South Kashmir and joined the Harkat Ul Ansar as rashid khan, the district commander.

The Harkat Ul Ansar, headquartered in Pakistan, has been put on the terrorist watch list by the United States. The organisation, however, continues operations under a new name, Harkat Ul Mujahideen.

UNI

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