Punjab Police will not allow revival of terrorism: DGP

Chadigarh, Jan 10 (UNI) Ruling out the possibility of revival of terrorism in Punjab, Director General of Police (DGP) N P S Aulakh today stated that the police was competent and alert to thwart any such designs.

" We are alert, have geared up our intelligence network and are keeping a close tag on terrorist sympathisers", the DGP said while talking about the achievements of the police in the previous year.

Refering to the Shingar cinema bomb explosion in Ludhiana in September last year in which six persons were killed, Mr Aulakh told mediapersons that this was an isolated incident. " Terrorists will make efforts to revive militancty, but the police here is alert enough to check them in their designs", he added.

Replying to a question on the cinema explosion, DGP said that it was the handiwork of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and those responsibile including the kingpin Gurpreet Singh were arrested by the police. There was no nexus between the BKI and the J&K militants in this incident, though the hand of the ISI could not be overruled as Gurpreet Singh had received training in Pakistan, he claimed.

Admitting that all those arrested in the Ludhiana incident were new recruits, the DGP pointed out that the kingpin had exploited the religious sentiments of a couple of youngsters and had then trained them in the handling of explosives. The prime target of the three BKI modules headed by Gurpreet Singh were the heads of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda and Noormahal-based Divya Jyoti Jagaran Sansthan and Baba Bhaniarwala, he said while refering to the religious sentiment angle.

In all 15 BKI activists including Gurpreet were arrested after the Ludhiana incident and their interrogation led to the recovery of 18 kg RDX, five pistols, three revolvers and nine detonators.

Besides the BKI modules, the Punjab Police also busted two modules of the International Liberation Revolutionary Force with the arrest of six of its activists in Mansa and Ferozpur districts last year. This organisation comprises former terrrorists and criminals and their targets were religious congregations organised by sects like the Dera Sacha Sauda.

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