NIAUP police team attacked in Ghaziabad
NEW DELHI: A suspect who allegedly supplied arms for the killing of an RSS leader in Punjab managed to flee from a Ghaziabad village after locals fired upon a raiding team of NIA and UP police on Sunday.
NEW DELHI: A suspect who allegedly supplied arms for the killing of an RSS leader in Punjab managed to flee from a Ghaziabad village after locals fired upon a raiding team of National Investigation agency (NIA) and Uttar Pradesh police early on Sunday.
The joint team was following a lead in connection with the killing of religious leaders in Punjab over the last years.
“During the raid, a large crowd of men and women tried to obstruct the local police and the NIA team. Some people in the mob started firing at the (police and NIA) parties. The firing was followed by stone pelting,” the NIA said in a statement.
The mob also blocked roads at many locations. The UP Police and NIA personnel fired in the air in self defence.
A UP police constable Tahjib Khan suffered injury in his leg whereas an official vehicle was damaged in the incident.
The NIA has been entrusted with probe into the killing of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Punjab’s Ludhiana in October.
Punjab police had arrested two accused Ramandeep Singh of Ludhiana and Hardeep Singh of Italy (his parents live in Amloh of Fatehgarh Sahib) for their involvement in the killing.
NIA, which took over the case and their custody later, had earlier said that the two were allegedly involved in eight previous incidents of murder or attempted murder in Punjab since January 2016, targets of
which were religious leaders, primarily of the RSS or Hindu organisations.
The NIA had claimed that the murders were a larger conspiracy to destabilise Punjab and it was hatched by Sikh extremist elements based in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.
During interrogation of the Punjab-based accused, names of some suspects from western Uttar Pradesh emerged for allegedly supplying arms.
The agency has been raiding various places in neighbouring Meerut district since Saturday night.
On getting more leads, a raid was conducted at the residence of suspect Malook (resident of Nahali village in Ghaziabad) on Sunday morning, when the locals fired upon them and pelted stones, NIA spokesman said.
He added that efforts were on to trace Malook, and two suspects are being questioned in this regard