Pro-Khalistan human bomb8217; held

GURDASPUR, April 6: A plan to eliminate top leaders of the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab by Khalistani terrorists was foiled with ...

GURDASPUR, April 6: A plan to eliminate top leaders of the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab by Khalistani terrorists was foiled with the arrest of a woman human bomb8217;, police said today.

Senior Superintendent of Police Gaurav Yadav said the woman, Ravinder Kaur alias Tutu 28 from Jammu, was arrested at Rudrapur in Uttar Pradesh on March 30 in a joint-operation by the state police and intelligence sleuths.

Ravinder, a member of the Khalistani Zindabad Force KZF was wanted in connection with two bus bomb blasts at Pathankot in April and June last year. Nine people were killed and several injured in the blasts. The Punjab police had been on her trail ever since.

Yadav said Ravinder, sister-in-law of KZF chief Ranjit Singh alias Neeta, is married to Nirmal Singh Nimma, who was acquitted in the General Vaidya assassination case.

The SSP said three consignments of explosives along with arms and ammunition and cyanide capsules smuggled from Pakistan by KZF deputy chief Attar Singh, used in thePathankot blasts were kept in her house at Simble Chowk in Jammu.He said while one of the three consignments of 20 kg each was used in preparing improvised explosive devices IEDs detonated in the blasts, the remaining two were delivered to some people. He, however, refused to disclose the identity of the people8217;.

The IEDs were supposed to have been delivered to her to implement the terrorists8217; plan.

Yadav said Ravinder was in constant telephonic contact with other terrorists based in Canada, Britain, Belgium and Germany. The Babbar Khalsa International was also involved in the conspiracy, he added. Wadhava Singh of the Khalsa and Neeta, who are based in Pakistan, received instructions from abroad and operated in tandem. Neeta used to ring up Ravinder on her contact number and leave instructions.

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He said Ravinder, a law graduate, took active part in all the meetings held in Jammu in which operational details of the Pathankot blasts were discussed. She has been brought from Rudrapur under a transitremand and will be kept in police remand till April 12. Ravinder carried a cyanide capsule which, she confessed during interrogation, was part of the consignments of explosives. The SSP said she had visited Delhi for obtaining a visa for going abroad but could not manage it, being pursued by the police. She had obtained a passport through Neeta.

During her visits to Delhi she used to meet one Gurdeep Singh, who was arrested by the Delhi police for his involvement in the Jhelum Express blast at Ambala on December 6, 1996, which killed 15 people.

Ravinder got involved in terrorist activities after her sister married Neeta in 1990. Her husband Nimma belonged to Gehri Gadri village in Amritsar district. Sukha, who was convicted in the Vaidya murder case also hailed from the same village.