CHANDIGARH: Punjab and Chandigarh Police jointly arrested five accused over the low-intensity blast that took place outside the Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Chandigarh. The accused were allegedly working on the directions of Portugal and Germany based handlers who were backed by the ISI of Pakistan.
The grenade attack was carried out outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office at Sector 37 in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Notably, terror group Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) has taken responsibility for the blast which occurred around 5 pm on Wednesday.
Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said here on Saturday that the Counter Intelligence wing of Punjab Police, in a joint operation with Chandigarh Police, solved the Chandigarh grenade attack case with the arrest of five accused. He also said they recovered one hand grenade and one .30 bore Zigana pistol along with ammunition from their possession.
Those arrested have been identified as Balwinder Lal alias Shami of village Majari in SBS Nagar, Jasvir Singh alias Jassi of village Bharapur in SBS Nagar, Charanjit Singh alias Channi of Sujawalpur village in SBS Nagar, Rubal Chauhan of Thana village in Shimla, and Mandeep alias Abhijot Sharma of Dhuri in Sangrur.
Yadav said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the module was backed by Pakistan’s ISI and operated under the direction of foreign-based handlers located in Portugal and Germany. "The accused persons were part of a structured network involving multiple cutouts and sub-modules to execute the attack,’’ he said. He said that two key perpetrators involved in the attack have also been identified.
Further investigations are ongoing to establish forward and backward linkages in this case, he added.
Sharing more details, Assistant Inspector General of Police, State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) SAS Nagar Deepak Pareek said that the investigation has further revealed that the arrested accused had transported a consignment containing hand grenades, arms and live cartridges. The consignment was circulated through multiple operatives before being handed over to the final perpetrators, he said.
Pareek said that acting on the directions of a Portugal-based handler, the accused persons coordinated the delivery and execution of the attack. Police teams are conducting raids to apprehend the absconding perpetrators involved in the attack, he added.
In this regard, a case has been registered under section 25(1) (B) of the Arms act and section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Police Station SSOC SAS Nagar.
Also, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started an investigation.
The Chandigarh Police had registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Explosives Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the incident. They had claimed that they had identified two suspects.
An unverified video believed to be linked to the incident is circulating on social media, showing a person pulling the pin from a blue-coloured grenade and throwing it and the other person recording the video.
The duo is then seen fleeing moments before the blast. Their faces were not visible in the 10-second video, the veracity of which was yet to be ascertained. CCTV camera footage also showed the suspects running across the road after the explosion.