PATNA: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) arrested a suspected Khalistani terrorist from Bihar’s Gaya district, officials said on Saturday. The arrested terrorist has been identified as Sharanjit Kumar alias Sunny, who was involved in a grenade attack at a temple in Punjab’s Amritsar district in March this year.
Acting on a tip off, an NIA team with the help of the Sherghati police in Gaya district conducted a raid at a roadside dhaba (eatery) near Gopalpur village and arrested Sharanjit Kumar, stated to be a resident of Bhaini Bangar Kadiyan village near Batla under Gurudaspur district of Punjab, late on Friday.
Shaialendra Singh, additional SP, Sherghati, Gaya, confirmed the arrest of Khalistani terrorist and said that the Sherghati police extended its full cooperation to the NIA team in the arrest of the wanted terrorist. Sharanjit used to travel as a truck driver on different routes to dupe the police and the central probe agency.
Additional SP Singh said that officials of the NIA were quizzing the arrested terrorist at an undisclosed location. He will be handed over to the probe agency after completing legal formalities as he is not wanted in any criminal case in Gaya district. “The local police provided logistic support to the raiding team in the operation,” he told this reporter over phone.
According to sources in the NIA, the arrested terrorist was involved in indiscriminate firing and attack with a grenade at Amritsar temple on March 15 this year.
Sources said that Sharanjit had provided grenades to Gursidak Singh and Vishal Gill, who were assigned to hurl the explosive at the temple.
Initial investigation revealed that the attack was orchestrated by some foreign based terrorist outfits. India based handlers of the terrorist outfits carried out the attack to terrorise the local people. Saranjit is believed to have received the consignment of four grenades from a Gurudaspur resident on March 1, 2025, two weeks before the attack.
Authoritative sources said that NIA team was camping in Gaya’s Sherghati after Saranjit’s location was traced near a roadside eatery on Friday. The terrorist had alighted from a truck and was taking a rest when the NIA team took him under custody.
The arrest of Samarjit is considered to be a big achievement for the probe agency as he had dodged the NIA team about a month ago during a raid at his hideout near Batla city in Punjab. Since then, the NIA team has been looking for him, sources said.