Punjab Police has busted a terror module of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) by arresting two militants on Sunday — Makhan Singh Gill alias Amli, and Davinder Singh alias Happy — both residents of Noorpur Jattan village in Hoshiarpur district.
The Police have seized two sophisticated arms and ammunition, including one MP5 sub-machine gun (with two magazines and 30 live rounds) and one 9 mm pistol (with two magazines and 30 live rounds), besides one white colour Etios car, four mobile phones, and an internet dongle.
Sharing information, the state Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said: “During the preliminary investigations, Makhan alias Amli disclosed that they were in touch with Canada-based Harpreet Singh who had instigated them to raise a terror module in Punjab to carry out terrorist killings.”
“According to Makhan Amli, who has earlier been a close associate of BKI chief Wadhawa Singh, Canada-based Harpreet, a KZF operative, is a frequent visitor to Pakistan and he’s a close aide of Pak-based KZF chief Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta,” he said.
The state police chief said that the accused further disclosed that the above arms and ammunition had been arranged for them by Ranjeet Neeta through his associates.
“A couple of other foreign based terrorist handlers from Germany and the USA had also figured in the module, who were involved in transferring funds from abroad to Makhan alias Amli through different money transfer services, including Western Union and other funding channels as well,” added Gupta.
DGP said that Makhan alias Amli was a hardcore pro-Khalistan militant who had been earlier arrested by Punjab Police for his involvement in smuggling in arms consignments into India and various terror related offences.
“Amli has been trained in Pakistan and he has earlier stayed in USA during 1980s and 1990s. He has been very closely associated with the Pak-based Babbar Khalsa International chief, Wadhawa Singh Babbar and stayed with him in Pakistan for over 14 years,” he added.
Gupta said that a case dated October 4, 2020, under sections 120-B, 121, 152 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act, read with sections 17, 18, 18-B, 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Act, has been registered at Mahalpur police station, Hoshiarpur district.
He added that Amli had been engaging in various terror and other criminal activities in the past, and as many as seven cases had been earlier registered against him.
“Based on inputs about the disruptive designs of certain pro-Khalistan elements, who had plans to disturb peace and communal harmony in the State by launching terror attacks, the security forces across the State had launched a major drive to conduct raids and checking the movement and whereabouts of members of various terrorist modules busted in the past,” said the DGP adding that the current breakthrough was the result of these concerted efforts and the drive.