Two aides of terrorist Rinda arrested, tiffin bomb recovered in Una
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab police on Saturday arrested two aides of Khalistani terrorist Harinder Singh Rinda for the Ropar police post blast that took place ahead of the state election results last month, and recovered a tiffin bomb hidden by them in an abandoned well near their hideout in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district.
One foreign made 9mm pistol and 10 live cartridges were also recovered from the accused apprehended by the SBS Nagar district police in Singa village of Una district. The police team, that carried out the operation with Una police, also recovered a tiffin bomb which the accused had kept inside an abandoned well situated in the village forest just adjacent to the Himachalpunjab border.
On the eve of the 2022 assembly election result day on March 9, anti-social elements had tried to blow up a police post at Kalma Morh in Ropar on the Nurpur Bedi-nangal road. No loss of life was reported in the incident but a side wall of the police post was damaged.
The SBS Nagar police got a clue about the involvement of the Rinda group in the Kalma Morh blast case while probing the November 7, 2021, low-intensity bomb blast on the crime investigation agency (CIA) police station at Nawanshahr that was solved last week. In this case too, as per police, Rinda is said to be the main conspirator. Wanted in more than 25 heinous crimes in India, Rinda is said to be in Pakistan in ISI’S shelter.
According to Sandeep Sharma, SSP SBS Nagar, during investigation of CIA police station blast case, the district police got the lead about involvement of few other persons in the case with one Ludhiana resident Kuldeep Kumar alias Sunny as the main person who used to talk to Rinda quite often.
“Total five new arrests have been made in past couple of days. Those arrested from Una are part of another module associated with Sunny. Sunny had provided two bombs to two arrested from Himachal. One grenade bomb was used in attack in Kalma Morh police post whereas the other, tiffin bomb, was kept at the native village in Una,” said Sharma.
The accused from Una had come in contact with Sunny via a common friend and the initial probe in the case revealed they were paid money for carrying the blast. Wrapped in plastic material, the tiffin bomb recovered from the accused was not assembled and the preliminary probe reveals that it also came from Pakistan as has been in some other cases.
A police functionary said the involvement of Rinda in these cases has emerged as a major concern as he had strong links with Punjab criminals and he was using it to create terror in Punjab.