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Pak senator is fostering terrorism in India, reveals KCF extremist

The arrest of a confidant of Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar by the Punjab police has exposed a Pakistan politician's involvement in aiding subversive operations across the border.

Punjab police chief P C Dogra said that following his arrest two days ago, and preliminary interrogation, Sahib Singh alias Sucha Singh, a leader of the Pak-based organisation, said that Senator Naam Singh, representing the Sikh minority community in Pakistan, was actively supporting terrorists on Indian soil.

Panjwar had direct access to Naam Singh, besides many other politicians in the neighbouring country, according to Sahib Singh.

With this arrest, the police also foiled yet another plan by Pak-based terrorists to revive terrorism in Punjab -- the terrorist revealed that besides six consignments of RDX weighing 80 kilograms, the group had also smuggled in another consignment of an unheard of explosive codenamed C-4 through the Jammu border after October.

Dogra said the arrest of the 42-year-old terrorist led to a goldmine of information on the funding, training and morale building of Pak terrorists.

Sahib's interrogation also revealed that many terrorists, including Mehal Singh of Babbar Khalsa, were being allowed to broadcast under assumed identities on Pakistan Radio on the half-hour Punjabi durbar programme every evening to propagate secessionism in India.

Sahib, son of an ex-armyman from Feroze Sangwal village in Kapurthala district, was in charge of supplying arms and explosives to KCF's nodals in India. He told the police he had been trained by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence in handling sophisticated weapons and fabricating various types of improvised explosive devices. He was motivated by the Belgium-based Parchan Singh, who helped him financially in arranging his sister's marriage in India.

The accused had reached Pakistan in December 1993 via Germany and Belgium, and then crossed over to India through the Rajasthan border in February. Sahib also disclosed that a 25-metre-long metal strip packed with RDX for blowing up railway tracks also reached India.

The consignment of C-4 explosive and the RDX-packed strip were yet to be recovered by the police, Dogra said.

The police chief said Sahib Singh disclosed that Panjwar was under tremendous pressure from the ISI to pull off something big. Whenever the KCF chief was admonished for his failure to organise any terrorist crime ''he (Panjwar) got into acute depression and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.'' This had happened many times in the recent past, indicating the desperation of the terrorists, Dogra said.

Sahib Singh further told his interrogators that Baljinder Singh Neeta and Girdawar Singh, arrested recently, had been promised Rs 5 million for every killing of senior politicians in the country.

Dogra said the accused told the police that Panjwar was heavily funded by terrorist leaders based in Britain, the United States, Germany and Belgium, who had transferred to him 26,000 pounds sterlings and 36,000 German marks in November, 1997.

Balwinder Singh Chaheru, who sent him money from the UK, had promised another 25,000 pounds. The German money came from Satpal Singh Padda (20,000 marks) and Jatindervir Singh (16,000 marks), Dogra said.

The police chief said Sahib Singh had been sent to set up a ring of terrorists to replace the seven-member gang which the police busted on the eve of former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral's electioneering visit on February 11.

The members of the gang, arrested by the Punjab and Haryana police, were identified as Dhian Singh, Rajinderpal Singh, Gurvinder Singh alias Puppy, Narinderpal Singh alias Shahbaz and Girdawar Singh. While Shahbaz was arrested by the Haryana police from Yamunanagar, the rest were taken into custody by the Kapurthala and Jalandhar police.

The seventh member, Amar Singh, who operated as a taxi driver in Moga, was arrested subsequently.

The police had recovered 42 kg of explosives along with accessories to make IEDs, besides six Chinese Mausers of .30 mm calibre and 25 detonators.

It was shortly after the busting of the ring on February 10 that Sahib Singh crossed over to India, Dogra said.

UNI

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