KZF chief Neeta was transporter in Jammu

CHANDIGARH:RANJEET Singh Neeta, chief of banned terror group Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), who is the mastermind behind the recently busted terror module and smuggling of a cache of arms by using drones, originally belongs to Jammu and was a transporter, before he joined the terror ranks and finally fled to Pakistan in 1990s.

Neeta, who is around 60 as per intelligence agencies, lives in Lahore in a posh house and enjoys facilities provided by the ISI’S special intelligence wing that looks after Khalistan affairs. He has a strong support among the pro-khalistan extremists sitting in Europe. It was due to increase in activities of KZF that European Union (EU) had banned this organisation in 2005.

Neeta is said to be the ISI’S pointman behind facilitating close proximity between Khalistani extremists and Kashmiri terror groups prompting them to help each other in spreading terror in India.

India has repeatedly asked Neeta’s extradition from Pakistan in the past two decades. He still figures among the top 20 men who are settled in foreign countries and are wanted in India in different terror cases.

KZF hardly had any local support during terrorism days and the organisation hogged limelight after perpetrating terror acts after late 1990s with full support from Pakistan. Police officials claim that before forming KZF, Neeta first came in contact with small-time drug peddlers in Jammu, Samba and RS Pura areas and was later introduced to big smugglers backed by ISI.

Over half-a-dozen FIRS were filed against Neeta. These included those pertaining to bomb blasts on trains and buses running between Jammu and Pathankot between 1988 and 1999. In May 2009, KZF admitted of killing religious leader of Dera Sachkhand Ballan (Jalandhar), Rama Nand, in Vienna in Austria.

The probe conducted by Punjab Police so far has revealed that Neeta masterminded smuggling of arms and also involved his Germany-based associate Gurmeet Singh Bagga, alias ‘Doctor’, in the conspiracy. The two radicalised and recruited local members the KZF module. “Neeta masterminded this task on the direction of ISI. The probe has revealed that Bagga visited Neeta in Pakistan a few days before the conspiracy was hatched after abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir,” said a senior police official.

WAS MASTERMIND BEHIND TERROR MODULE AND SMUGGLING OF WEAPONS FROM PAK USING DRONES