7 held in Tarn Taran blast case
TARN TARAN :Police have arrested seven persons for their involvement in Tarn Taran blast case in which two persons were killed and one was severe injured on Tarn Taran-khadoor Sahib link road near Pandoori Gola village, 10km from district headquarters, on September 4.
Bikramjit Singh, 22, of Kadgill village and Harpreet Singh, 19, of Bachre village had died on the spot while Gurjant Singh, 27, had suffered serious injuries in the incident. Police had said the trio was digging the earth either to excavate or hide the explosives as a spade was found from the spot.
On condition of anonymity, a senior police official in Tarn Taran told HT that they have taken the remand of six of the total seven arrested accused after presenting them in a local court on Monday.
According to information six persons— identified as injured Gurjant Singh’s cousin Amritpal Singh of Bachre village, Manpreet Singh aka Manna of Muradpura locality, Harjit Singh aka Hira of Pandoori Gola village and Mandeep Singh of Deenewal village in Tarn Taran, and Chandeep Singh of Malhi Market in Batala and Amarjit Singh of Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur district—were arrested on Monday while one accused identified as Massa Singh of Deenewal was arrested on Sunday.
The police official further said, “The arrested accused were working together for making explosives by using materials used for making firecrackers. Our interrogation suggests that some of the arrested men were also trained for making blasts and some were expert in making the explosives.”
ARRESTED MEN WERE RECEIVING FOREIGN FUNDING
He said, “We have discovered that the arrested men, who are baptised Sikhs, had been in contact with some pro-khalistani elements in foreign countries. Some of the accused had even been receiving foreign funding .”
The officer further cleared that on September 4, the trio had gone to the abandoned plot near Pandoori Gola village for digging the explosive. “They wanted to make the blast in a public place just to create panic among the public. We have also found that the arrested men had been brainwashed by some pro-khalistani elements in foreign,” he said.
Inspector general of police (IGP), border range, Surinder Pal Singh Parmar is expected to hold a press conference on Tuesday.
The IG had said, “We are investigating radical angle into the case.” Considering the sensitivity of the case, national investigation agency (NIA) National Security Guard (NSG), a counter terrorism unit under the ministry of home affairs, along with other national agencies had inspected the spot.
Police had said earlier that they found that injured Gurjant Singh and one of the deceased Bikramjit Singh had links with some Sikh radicals. Younger brother of Bikramjit, Nishan Sing (24), is in Dubai while the younger brother of Gurjant, Beant Singh (25), is in some other country.
An FIR was registered in this regard at Tarn Taran Sadar police station under Section 304 of the IPC and Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act.