Two arrested with RDX-packed IED were paid ₹30,000
ACCUSED HAVE BEEN SENT TO THREE-DAY POLICE CUSTODY; WERE TRANSPORTING EXPLOSIVES FROM TARN TARAN VILLAGE TO AJNALA, SAY POLICE
TARN TARAN: Two bike-borne men arrested with an improvised explosive device (IED) packed with 1.5kg of RDX at Tarn Taran’s Naushehra Pannuan village on Sunday were paid ₹30,000 for transporting it to Ajnala town in Amritsar, said police on Monday.
The Tarn Taran police had on Sunday thwarted a possible terror attack with the arrest of Baljinder Singh, alias Bindu (22), of Gujjarpura village and Jagtar Singh, alias Jagga (40), of Khanowal village of Ajnala sub-division in Amritsar with explosives.
Both Baljinder and Jagtar were produced in the court of judicial magistrate first class (JMIS) Tanveer Singh on Monday and sent to three-day police remand.
Police had said the accused had gone to retrieve the IED from an abandoned building in Naushehra Pannuan village on the instructions of their accomplice, identified as Jobanjit Singh, alias Joban, a resident of Awan Vasau in Ajnala. Jobanjit is already facing criminal cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and has been declared a proclaimed offender (PO).
Accused wanted to spread terror by targeting religious and public places, the police had said, adding that Baljinder, Jagtar and Joban were in contact with some gangsters and had been receiving funding through hawala from their foreignbased handlers.
“During interrogation, we come to know that Joban had given ₹30,000 to Baljinder and Jagtar for transporting the explosive from Naushehra Pannuan to the Ajnala town. Both Baljinder and Jagtar belong to poor families. Binder was working as a nursing assistant in a private hospital in Ajnala and had been getting ₹7,000 to 8,000 salary, while Jagga was working as a labourer. The prime accused is Joban who is absconding,” said a senior police official, who is part of the investigation. He said: “The explosives were kept in a gunny bag in an abandoned government rest house building of Naushehra Pannuan. Prima facie, it appears that the IED was smuggled through drone from Pakistan. We are working to ascertain the identity of those who had kept the IED in the abandoned building.”
The recovery of the IED had come three days after two backto-back drone sightings along the India-Pakistan border near the Khalra village of Tarn Taran. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ranjit Singh Dhillon and other senior police officials launched a search operation of the area but nothing suspicious was found. “We are also verifying if the IED was smuggled from the Khalra village side,” the official said.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP investigation) Dev Dutt said the police teams were working on various aspects to unravel the entire module.