The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a chargesheet against five suspected Khalistani operatives in a case of arms and narcotics smuggling from across the border via drones. The chargesheet has been filed against Harmesh Singh, Darvesh Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Lakhbir Singh Rode - all residents of Punjab. 🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️ "Investigation has revealed that the chargesheeted accused persons had smuggled illegal consignments of arms, ammunition, explosives and narcotics from across the India-Pakistan border to carry out terror activities in India," the NIA said in a statement. According to the NIA, these illegal consignments were sent by the absconding accused Lakhbir Singh Rode (Chief of ISYF, a banned terrorist organisation) and his associates from Pakistan via drones. "These consignments were received by co-accused and further discreetly passed on to other accused persons involved in the conspiracy to carry out subversive activities in India. Incriminating evidences have been found against all the chargesheeted accused persons," the NIA statement said. The case was initially registered at Mamdot police station in Punjab's Ferozepur on August 8 last year. The NIA took over the case in November that year. Rode, incidentally, is also being probed in connection with the 2020 killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh Sandhu in Punjab's Tarn Taran district. A Shaurya Chakra recipient for fighting militancy in Punjab, Sandhu was gunned down at his home in Tarn Taran’s Bhikhiwind by two unidentified bikers on October 16, 2020. The attack took place months after the security cover of Sandhu (62) was removed by the state government. Sandhu’s family termed the killing as a terror attack and blamed it on the decision to remove his security. “During the initial investigation by the Punjab Police, it was revealed that the killing was executed under a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based Khalistani terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode and his handlers in the Pakistan intelligence agency, ISI. The killing of Comrade Singh was executed through one Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikariwal from Gurdaspur district, who is a gangster-turned-terrorist,” the NIA had said in a statement then.
