Punjab grenade blast throws light on modules operating at Pakistan's behest
CHANDIGARH: That Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been using separatist Khalistani forces to spread terror in Punjab is not news. However, there’s been a subtle shift in its modus operandi, which has not escaped the notice of our intelligence agencies. The ISI now has separate modules at its disposal to carry out individual tasks assigned to them. While one module does a recce of the place identified for a terror strike, the other carries out the attack after receiving the consignment of weapons and explosives.
Keeping a tab on all these modules is the handler, who also assigns tasks to individual operatives. According to sources in the state intelligence agencies, operatives belonging to a separate ISI module does a recce of a site and then relays their information or intelligence to another module, which has been tasked with carrying out the attack.
The former brief the latter on the contours and geographical dimensions of the place and shares their inputs on how to execute the attack, sources said. It is on the basis of the inputs provided by the recce team that the strike team fleshes out a plan to carry out the attack.
However, no one in the recce team is personally acquainted with the ones in the strike team, as these modules operate in their individual capacities and not in coordination. A similar modus operandi was at play in the run-up to the grenade attack on the Nirankari Satsang Bhawan near Amritsar, agencies said.
Bikramjit Singh, one of the accused who was arrested, told police that he was fairly well acquainted with the site where the incident took place and also knew how the attack was to be carried out. Hence, he ferried the other accused, Avtar Singh, to Nirankari Satsang and told him how to mount the attack, intelligence sources said. Avtar lobbed the grenade, killing three persons and injuring more than 20, sleuths said.