With the anniversary of Operation Blue Star nearing, the pro-Khalistan organisations and activists have become active in Punjab. Sequent to the arrests of several radicals only recently by the Punjab Police, two hand-grenades were recovered by police on Sunday from two bike-borne men during routine checking.
In fact, the police has also beefed up the security in the state, especially in the holy city of Amritsar — the ground zero of the Operation Blue Star, a codename of an Indian military action carried out between June 1 and 8, 1984, to remove Sikh militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex and the Sikhs’ highest temporal seat, Akal Takht.
On Sunday morning, a police team, laying a routine naka (barricade) near Kukranwala Adda in Ajnala sub-division, intercepted two bike-borne youngsters. But the duo, instead of stopping, tried to escape. Before fleeing, one of the youth accidently dropped off a bag and also left their motorcycle, which was without a registration number.
Later, when the bag was checked, the police recovered two green-coloured grenades bearing some marking on them.
Before that, on June 1, Amritsar police had nabbed a person Nishan Singh and recovered .32 bore revolver from him, who was reported to be aligned with some Sikh radical group.
On May 30, the police had arrested two activists of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Jagdev Singh and Ravinderpal Singh for allegedly arranging funds and weapons for BKI’s sleepers cells.
As per the police reports, both of them were taking orders from Malaysia-based Kulwinderjit Singh alias Khanpuriya.
In a joint operation, Jalandhar counter intelligence wing and Amritsar Commissionerate of Police, on May 24, had arrested a wanted extremist of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) Kulwant Singh alias Kanta Vallitya of Jagrawan village in Jalandhar district.
Kanta was reportedly actively involved in terror activities during the militancy era and more than 15 cases were registered against him during that period.