Babbar Khalsa ultra held

According to Dogra, Sukhpal is a diploma holder in engineering, belonging to Akhand Kirtani jatha. He came in contact with Satnam Singh Satta, also a diploma holder, while in the Polytechnic college. Satta arranged his meeting with Wadhawa Singh of Babbar Khalsa. Sukhpal’s elder brother had also been associated with the militants. Dogra said this group had started secretly organising boys from religious institutions in Ludhiana district. The DGP said Wadhawa had worked out a detailed blue print for reviving terrorism in the Malwa belt of Punjab with Ludhiana being the nodal district.

Dogra said during preliminary interrogation, Sukhpal confessed that a consignment of arms and explosives was handed over to him by Satta at Ludhiana which was recovered in a joint raid by the Amritsar and Jagraon police.

He said the ISI of Pakistan had “refined” its proxy war in Punjab by promoting narco-terrorism by activating criminals, smugglers and couriers in Punjab and adjoining states. However, the Punjab police had evolved a coordinated strategy to counter these challenges, he added. Dogra said the religious shrines covered by the militants did not belong to the shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC). The Akali Dal-BJP government was extending full support to the police, he said, to break this ring.

Dogra said the first attempt to cause violence was undertaken by the Khalistan Zindabad Force in Jalandhar and Pathankot and the second attempt of the KCF (Panjwar) in Ludhiana and Bhatinda was foiled by the Punjab police.