ISI-backed terrorists nabbed in Punjab, say cops

The Punjab police on Saturday claimed it had arrested top terrorists of the Pakistan-based Babbar Khalsa International along with three smugglers. With this, the police said, it had foiled an attempt by BKI chief Wadhawa Singh Babbar to revive militancy in the state.

The police identified the arrested terrorists as Satnam Singh alias Satta and Gurlal Singh, and the smugglers as Kashmir Singh and Baj Singh.

The police recovered 15 kgs of explosives, four .30 bore pistols, four magazines, 160 cartridges, 15 potassium cyanide capsules, 20 detonators, two electronic time devices, four nine-volt batteries, more than nine feet prima cord, five feet of fuse cord, four time pencils, one kg potassium cyanide and one bottle of anaesthetic from them.

The BKI and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the police said, had planned to assassinate VIPs and explode bombs in the state.

The police said Satnam Singh, a terrorist who was earlier arrested under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, was put in touch with Babbar by BKI planner Ram Singh. Acting under Babbar's orders, Satnam Singh was organising and planning terrorist activities in the state, the police said, adding that the special operation in the Gharinda police station was carried out on reliable information.

On interrogation, Gurlal Singh and Baj Singh confessed they had gone to Pakistan via the Jammu border about a month ago and met an ISI agent, Farman, in Lahore. Farman introduced them to Babbar, Mehal Singh and some other BKI terrorists, they reportedly revealed. Babbar, the smugglers allegedly claimed, got them to smuggle explosives and weapons to his agents in Punjab. They were offered gold and heroin for the purpose.