CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced the arrest f one of the two perpetrators of the grenade attack on Nirankari Satsang Bhawan near Amritsar, calling Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) the mastermind of the terror strike. He said, “Pakistan's ISI was the mastermind and the accused are touts they were using. There were two people involved in the attack and one of them has been caught within 72 hours of the incident and the other will be caught very soon as we are onto him.”
Three people were killed and 15 injured in an attack on Sunday, for which Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) operative Bikramjit Singh (26), has been arrested. Singh added that Pakistan-based KLF chief Harmeet Singh Happy alias PhD, the mastermind of eight targeted killings in 2016-17, was the coordinator of the Nirankari Bhawan attack. Amarinder said Pakistan will obviously use militant organisations (like KLF) to “spoil” peace in Punjab. “For a long time now, ISI has been ver active. Passes in Kashmir have closed early due to snow this year and you'll find activity shifting to south.” He added that creating disturbance in Punjab means “peace for them”. The other person involved in the attack has been identified as Avtar Singh Khalsa of Chak Mishri Khan village.
Singh said his government has busted 17 Pakistan modules and made 81 arrests. “Our forces have been one step ahead of them. They (militants) don't drop packages but grenades by pieces. This on is a HG84, which is made in Pakistan ordnance factory. The same grenades are being used against our forces in Kashmir. These are filled with pellets and all those injured in the attack in Amritsar have pellet injuries. Our grenades are pineapple shaped,” Singh said.
He ruled out any religious motive behind the attack, and said Nirankaris must have been targeted as they were seen as soft targets. “It's a clear case of terrorism. The militants will target a place where there are no guards or gunmen. They (the victims) are people from economically weak backgrounds.”
