The special operational cell of Punjab police on Wednesday, October 2, arrested a Khalistani terrorist from Amritsar for destroying a Pakistani drone and selling two pistols that were airdropped.
The accused, Sajan Preet, was arrested from the Khalsa College locality.
The arrest comes in the backdrop of the Punjab government claiming that Pakistani drones have been dropping weapons in the Indian territory. The Punjab police had confirmed last week that Pakistani-origin drones dropped at least 80 kg of weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, in Tarn Taran district of Amritsar between September 9 and 16.
Police officials had said that the drones carried out around eight sorties in 10 days to drop weapons and satellite phones on the Indian soil. To evade detection, these flying machines with high-end technology and GPS flew fast and low.
Investigations had revealed that the dropped weapons were for terrorists to carry out 26/11-like attacks in religious places in Punjab and its surrounding states.
The state government had expressed concerns over the movement of huge amounts of arms and ammunition. State Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had taken to Twitter to urge Union Home Minister Amit Shah to handle the issue.
"Recent incidents of Pakistan-origin drones dropping consignments of arms & ammunition is a new and serious dimension on Pakistan's sinister designs in aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370. Request @AmitShah ji to ensure that this drone problem is handled at the earliest," the Punjab CM wrote.
Khalistani terror module busted
The Punjab police had last month busted a terror module of the revived Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), which was conspiring to unleash a series of terrorist strikes in Punjab and adjoining states.
Four persons were arrested and a huge cache of arms, consisting of five AK-47 rifles, pistols, satellite phones and hand grenades, was seized by the police.
Those arrested have been identified as Balwant Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Balbir Singh.
The module was backed by the Pakistan-based chief of the KZF, Ranjeet Singh, alias Neeta, and his Germany-based associate, Gurmeet Singh, alias Bagga.
Given the international links and the ramifications of the conspiracy, the state CM had decided to hand over further investigations in the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to ensure that the entire conspiracy is fully and expeditiously unravelled.
The Chief Minister had also urged the Central government to direct the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Border Security Force (BSF) to launch necessary counter-measures to check any further hostile drone activity in the border state of Punjab.
Security beefed up at Amritsar airport
Punjab government on Tuesday beefed up the security at Amritsar's Guru Ramdas International airport, a week after a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.
"The security at the Amritsar airport has been beefed up following the recovery of drones along the India-Pak border," a government source told IANS.
"So keeping in mind the security threat to the Amritsar airport, snipers have been placed at the watch towers and other important places at the airport along with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)," the source added.
The Indian Air Force had last issues a red alert, following the recovery of drones. The source said the high security will remain for at least next four to five days.
