Chandigarh, May 20 (PTI) Punjab Police on Tuesday said it had busted a Pak-backed Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terror module, arresting six of its members involved in an attempted grenade attack outside a liquor vend in Batala.
The module was operated by Maninder Billa and Mannu Agwan on the directions of terrorist Harwinder Singh Rinda, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav.
On May 17, some bike-borne youths lobbed a grenade outside a liquor vend in the Focal Point area of Batala. The bomb failed to explode due to faulty assembly.
In the wake of the incident, police had then booked one Mannu Agwan.
Yadav said police have now arrested Jatin Kumar alias Rohan, Barinder Singh alias Sajan, Abraham alias Rohit and Sunil Kumar, all of them natives of Shukarpura, and Rahul Masih of Harnam Nagar, and Sohit of Qila Des Raj – all places in Batala.
Police recovered one .30 bore pistol from their possession.
The DGP said the six had been getting direct instructions from Portugal-based Maninder Billa and BKI mastermind Mannu Agwan, who had recently assumed operational charge after the arrest of gangster-turned-terrorist Happy Passian in the US.
Yadav said preliminary investigation has revealed that they had been directed by foreign handlers to lob a grenade at any of the liquor vends to spread fear among contractors, and creating a conducive environment for extortion demands.
Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Suhail Qasim Mir said Jatin Kumar alias Rohan, who lobbed the grenade, received a gunshot during the arrest.
He has been admitted at the local Civil Hospital for medical treatment, he said.
Mir said the members of the module had assembled the grenade following instructions from Maninder Billa and another unknown person on a video call.
Since none of them had much technical knowledge, it led to a faulty assembly, and failed to detonate.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
