India News | Police Arrest Former Akal Takht Jathedar's Son After Recovery of Arms, Explosives

Kapurthala, Aug 20 (PTI) The Punjab Police arrested a former Akal Takht Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode's son after recovering a tiffin bomb, hand grenades and pistols in raids on his home and office in Jalandhar.

Police also arrested a friend of his from Phagwara in connection with the case.

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Police said initial probe revealed that the seized arms were part of a larger consignment sent by the Pakistan-based ISI and pro-Khalistan terrorist groups to carry out multiple terror attacks in Punjab to "revive militancy and disturb peace and communal harmony".

A police spokesperson said they had arrested one Gagandeep Singh from Phagwara and recovered a pistol from him.

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He told them that the pistol recovered from him was part of a weapon consignment sent from across the border through drones in the past a few months.

Gagandeep disclosed that a major part of the consignment was hidden by his close friend Gurmukh Singh, son of the former Akal Takht Jathedar.

Thereafter, police raided the house of Gurmukh at Hardyal Nagar in Jalandhar.

The spokesperson said two hand grenades, a box of detonators, two tubes suspected to contain RDX, one roll of highly explosive yellow wire, Rs 3.75 lakh in cash, two pistols along with two magazines and 14 Indian passports were recovered from him.

Police teams raided his office near the Jalandhar bus stand and recovered three hand grenades, a tiffin bomb and four pistol magazines.

Meanwhile, former Akal Takht Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode told reporters in Jalandhar that police raided his house on Thursday night.

The raiding team said they came to take Gurmukh Singh as he had some objectionable items, said Rode.

They searched the bedroom of Gurmukh thoroughly but they did not find anything, claimed Rode.

They then took Gurmukh along with them. They came back again after an hour and told him that they wanted to search the house again, said Rode.

He said he told them that they could search again but he could not accompany them as his health does not allow him to go upstairs, said Rode.

Later, police came down with two-three bags, he said.

A case has been registered against Gurmukh and Gagandeep under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosives Substances (Amendment) Act and the Arms Act at Phagwara.

The fresh seizure of arms and explosives came days after the recovery of an improvised explosive device (IED) concealed in a tiffin box along with five hand grenades and 100 rounds of 9 mm pistol from Daleke village in Lopoke in Amritsar.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)