Khalistani terrorist Harwinder Rinda dies in Pakistan: Punjab Police sources

Chandigarh, Nov 19: Khalistani terrorist Harwinder Singh Rinda, who was involved in various terror cases, including the RPG attack on the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in May, is learnt to have died in Pakistan, sources in the state police said on Saturday.

Though the cause of his death was not immediately known, the sources said he was admitted to a hospital in Lahore. Rinda, a member of the banned Khalistani outfit Babbar Khalsa International, had been taking the help of local gangsters to carry out anti-national activities here and was believed to be in Pakistan. His name had figured in the rocket propelled grenade (RPG) attack on the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in May this year.

He was also charge sheeted in a case related to seizure of arms and explosives from a vehicle in Haryana in the same month. The 35-year-old's involvement was also detected in a hand-grenade attack at the crime investigation agency office in Nawanshahr last November. Rinda was seen as the main link between gangsters and Pakistani-based terror groups and was described as a threat to national security by the investigating agencies as he was involved in large-scale cross-border smuggling of drugs and weapons.

He was a "most-wanted 'A' plus category" gangster in Punjab and also wanted in many cases in Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Haryana and West Bengal, among other places. Rinda had migrated from Sarhali village in Tarn Taran district in Punjab many years ago to Nanded in Maharashtra, according to police sources.

He entered the world of crime in 2008 when he allegedly killed man due to personal enmity in Tarn Taran. Rinda was also involved in the killing of Satnam Singh, the sarpanch of Hoshiarpur in Chandigarh in a sensational broad day light incident. He along with his gang committed murders, dacoities and extortions and he is an absconder and wanted in at least 30 known criminal cases.