CHANDIGARH: Punjab police have arrested one of the key perpetrators of the Nirankari Satsang Bhawan grenade attack from Adliwal village near Amritsar on Saturday. The accused, Avtar Singh, 32, was caught from the tube well motor shed of his uncle on Saturday morning. He would be produced in the court and the police would seek his remand, said Punjab DGP Suresh Arora. He added that there was strong evidence against the suspects.
Also, the police, based on the disclosure of Avtar, recovered the two pistols which the perpetrators were carrying on the day of attack. Initial investigations have revealed that Avtar was contacted on WhatsApp a few months ago by one Javed, who claimed to be a Pakistani national. Subsequently, he put Avtar in touch with Harmeet Singh Happy self- styled chief of ISI-backed KLF, based in Pakistan. Happy would allegedly try to motivate him to carry out terrorist acts in Punjab.
According to preliminary investigations, Avtar disclosed that his maternal cousin, Paramjit Singh is based in Italy and about two months ago, he contacted Paramjit to arrange weapons to ‘settle’ his enmity with some people of his village.
Towards the end of October or beginning of November, Avtar got a WhatsApp message from a foreign number with details of a location where weapons had been buried. After retrieving the weapons, Avtar and his accomplice Bikram carried out a recce of the Nirankari Satsang Bhawan and decided to target it on a chosen day, police said.
Weapon recovery
l The weapons recovered include two pistols (.32 bore), one of them US made, four magazines and 25 live rounds
l He got radicalised in 2007 when Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim appeared in the attire of Guru Gobind Singh