Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday claimed that his police force had cracked the string of targeted killings of religious leaders in the state by busting a terror module managed by Pakistan-based ISI and arrested four persons.
Amarinder said ISI was working in tandem with gangsters and “cells” abroad to destabilise Punjab. The victims include RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (Retd), RSS activist Ravinder Gosain, Pastor Sultan Masih and two Dera Sacha Sauda supporters, reports The Times of India.
He said the arrests had exposed “a major conspiracy hatched by ISI to fan communal disturbances and disrupt peace in the state”. Amarinder also tweeted about the breakthrough, congratulating the Punjab Police.
Flanked by DGP Suresh Arora and DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, the Chief Minister said three of the suspects have been identified as Jimmy Singh, a Jammu resident who recently returned to India from UK after spending some years there, and was picked up from Delhi’s IGI Airport a week ago; Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi, a UK national who got married in Punjab on October 18 and was apprehended in Jalandhar; Dharmender alias Guggni, a gangster from Meharban in Ludhiana who is lodged in the high security prison at Nabha but is said to have supplied weapons for the killings.
Singh said the identity of the fourth person could not be disclosed yet, adding that he was the main shooter in these cases and was caught this afternoon. His interrogation was still continuing, he said.
Responding to a question, Singh said, “The ISI was always looking out to disturb the country’s peace and to radicalise the youth. It is evident from the investigations that the targeted killings were aimed at fanning communal disturbances to further ISI’s anti-India game plan since there were strong indications of the active involvement of Pakistani intelligence operatives based in Pakistan and foreign soil,” reports The Indian Express.
The killing of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana recently was one in a series of high-profile murderous attacks on activists belonging to religious or right wing organisations that Punjab has witnessed in recent times.
Two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead 60-year-old RSS leader Gosain in the Kailash Nagar locality in Ludhiana, the police said. The crime was the eighth such incident in the state since 2016, reports DNA.
Here’s how Twitterati reacted to Singh’s claim:
(Feature Image Source: AFP)