The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday said that the terror operative who perpetrated the grenade attack at the Punjab Police headquarters in Mohali last year has been arrested from Uttar Pradesh.
The man, identified as Deepak Ranga from Surakpur village in Haryana’s Jhajjar, fired the rocket-propelled grenade at the Punjab Police headquarters on May 9 last year. On the run since the incident, Ranga was arrested from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, an NIA spokesperson said.
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Ranga, a close associate of Canada-based gangster-turned-terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias ‘Landa’ and Pakistan-based gangster-turned-terrorist Harvinder Singh Sandhu alias ‘Rinda’, has also been involved in several other terrorist and criminal offences, the anti-terror agency said, adding that he has been actively receiving funds and logistical support from Canada- and Pakistan-based terror operatives.
“It had emerged that the terror-gangster-drug smuggler network was also engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition, explosives, IEDs, etc. across border through a widespread inter-state network of gunrunners, illegal arms and ammunition manufacturers and suppliers and explosive traffickers,” the NIA spokesperson said.
The NIA had registered a suo motu case in the May 9 grenade attack in Mohali on September 20 last year. The case was registered by the federal agency after it emerged that terrorist outfits and terror elements based abroad were operating in tandem with leaders and members of organised criminal gangs operating in northern states of the country to commit targeted killings and violent criminal acts, it said.
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On the evening of May 9, a rocket-propelled grenade hit Punjab Police’s Intelligence Wing headquarters in Mohali, shattering windowpanes on one of the floors of the building. No one was injured in the explosion.
The NIA said since the registration of three criminal cases against the terror-gangster-drug smuggler networks, the agency has already arrested 19 leaders or members of various organised criminal gangs, two arms suppliers and a key financier connected with the network under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Canada-based Arsh Dalla has been designated as an “individual terrorist” by the Ministry of Home Affairs on January 9, the spokesperson said, adding further action to dismantle the terror-gangster-smuggler nexus and infrastructure would be intensified in the near future.
(With PTI inputs)