Nanded man headed ‘terror unit’ in Punjab

The seven youth,arrested on September 5,have been identified as Karamjeet Singh,Jatinder Singh,Sarwan Singh,Dharam Singh,Rana Pratap Singh,Labh Singh and Kashmir Singh,all of whom belong to the Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran districts of Punjab.

Following Satnam’s interrogation,police arrested another five suspects,identified as Harwinder Singh of Jagraon,Maninderjit Singh and Tarandeep Singh of Gurdaspur,Tejinder Singh of Haryana and Bachitar Singh of Tarn Taran.

According to police,this alleged terror module had been radicalised by banned organisations based overseas using tools like Facebook and WhatsApp. The Fategarh Sahib police have registered a case under sections 153A and 120B of the IPC and the Arms Act. Police have claimed to have recovered 10 firearms including an AK-47 rifle.

Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan told The Indian Express by phone,“Satnam never visited any foreign country. But he has a couple of Facebook profiles in which he shared his views,posted comments and photographs on a particular subject. These were spotted and liked by terror operatives in foreign countries who started online interactions with Satnam and slowly radicalised him.”

According to Chauhan,“Satnam was instrumental in organising the youth,mainly hailing from border districts of Punjab. Most of these youths have their individual social networking IDs and posted content in English and Punjabi. Satnam held meetings of these youths on the anniversary of Operation Bluestar and on other occasions.”

Chauhan said the module wanted to assassinate a Shiv Sena president of a district in Punjab,who they believed was responsible for the death of a Sikh youth during an agitation in the state. According to police,the module was funded by overseas operatives of banned terror outfits. The module that Satnam headed could have been created by Resham Singh,a Babbar Khalsa militant now based in Germany,sources in the police said.

In Nanded,the family of Satnam said they were not approached by the police,and had come to know of his arrest through the media. Satnam’s father Bikram Singh said his son had joined an industrial training institute (ITI) after his HSC exam,but dropped out midway.

“He used to frequently travel to Punjab. We used to see him often working on his laptop. He left home in the first week of June and have not seen him since. He is a religious person. It is hard to believe that he is involved in terror activities,” said Bikram Singh,who owns a dhaba in Nanded’s Vishnupuri area.

Nanded SP V N Jadhav said Satnam had been booked in a case of an attack on D P Singh,member of a local gurdwara committee,some four years ago,but the Nanded police have no record of his being involved in terror.