Accused planned to kill Sukhbir in 2016: Police

CHANDIGARH: The terror module behind the blast at Pandori Gola village in Tarn Taran on September 5 had planned to kill then deputy CM and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal in November 2016 in a bomb attack to “avenge” the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari, the probe conducted by Punjab Police in the case has revealed.

Interrogation of one of the accused, Malkiat Singh Shera, revealed that the kingpin of the module, Bikram Singh Panjwar, alias Bikkar, who had fled to Austria in 2018, was an expert in making IEDs and had assembled bombs to attack Sukhbir.

“Bikram used to tell me that Badal family is responsible for the sacrilege and should be eliminated. He planned to attack Sukhbir and motivated me to help in this cause of the Panth. Sukhbir was scheduled to visit Golden Temple on the occasion of Prakash Purb of Guru Ram Das in November 2016 and we planned to attack him. We had even done recee,” Shera is learnt to have told the investigators.

He also “confessed” that Bikram had two bombs in his possession and gave him one of these while keeping the other with himself in order to attack Sukhbir from the main entrance of the Golden Temple.

“The plan was that Bikram will first throw a bomb at Sukhbir, which would be followed by me. We both had taken positions outside the main entry of Golden Temple. But as Sukhbir arrived with very heavy security, Bikram got frightened and could not throw bomb. Later, he kept the bombs in a steel cover with him,” Shera told the investigators

Police officials claim that after radicalising, motivating, imparting training to other module members in making IEDs, sourcing low-grade explosives and supplying IEDs to them, Bikram escaped to Austria via Armenia in July 2018.

“Bikram, a Damdami Taksal follower, knew Shera since 2014 and used to spend most of his time in Amritsar,” a senior official privy to the probe said.

The investigation has also pointed out that the bombs that exploded on September 5 were the same that were buried by Bikram in 2016-17. Police claim that Gurjant, whom Bikram gave training in IED manufacturing, had got “fresh orders” from Bikram to carry out a bomb attack on certain VIPs. The idea was to use the bombs buried in the fields at Pandori Gola, but these exploded when Gurjant and his two associates were trying to dig them out.

Gurjant was injured and his associates Harpreet Singh and Vikramjeet were killed in the blast. Police has handed over the case to NIA in view of the suspected links of the accused with the Pak-backed Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).

Apart from Shera, the others arrested in the case are Harjit Singh, Manpreet Singh, Chandeep Singh Khalsa, Maandeep Singh , Amritpal Singh, Amarjit Singh and Gurjant Singh.

Gurjant, who was discharged from a private hospital on Friday, was arrested by NIA and was sent to seven-day remand.

CARRYING 2 BOMBS, PANJWAR AND SHERA REACHED GOLDEN TEMPLE TO ATTACK SUKHBIR TO ‘AVENGE’ SACRILEGE, BUT WERE FRIGHTENED BY HEAVY SECURITY, SAY COPS