Sleuths of Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorists Squad claimed to have nabbed an associate of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).
He was arrested from Haridwar in the late hours of Friday had allegedly supplied weapons to KLF members involved in the killing and attack on some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members.
The accused is wanted by the Mohali police in Punjab so he will be taken to Punjab and produced in the designated court.
According to an official communiqué released by the UP ATS on Saturday afternoon, they got inputs that one Asheesh Kumar of Jani area of Meerut, who was wanted by the Punjab Police, was present in western UP so they developed the information and subsequently laid a trap and nabbed him in Haridwar on Friday night.
The ATS claimed that in August 2016, Brigadier (retired) Jagdish Kumar Gagneja, who was co-chief of RSS Punjab unit, was murdered in Mohali by KLF members and Harmit Singh was arrested in this connection.
During interrogation by the sleuths of National Investigation Agency (NIA), Harmit revealed that the plan to eliminate Gagneja was hatched in Pakistan by another KLF member Harprit Singh, who was then camping in Pakistan.
It was also revealed that the weapon was provided to Harmit by Asheesh Kumar of Meerut. The Punjab Police named Asheesh Kumar in the case and were trying to arrest him.
On January 27, 2020, Harmit was killed in Dera Chahel Gurudwara in Lahore.
The ATS said that Asheesh was earlier arrested several times and he was in contact with KLF members during his stay in Patiala jail in Punjab.
The accused was further interrogated before being handed over to Punjab Police.
It may be mentioned that earlier on being tipped-off by Special Operation Cell of Amritsar that a resident of Muzaffarnagar was involved in supply of arms and ammunition to KLF members and criminals, the ATS had nabbed Sanjay Rathi alias Guddu, a native of Itawa village of Budhna in Muzaffarnagar district. Guddu had supplied arms and ammunition to two KLF members identified as Daljeet Singh alias Babloo of Jandiyal in Amritsar and Satnam Singh aka ‘Manni’, a native of Sultanpurvind in Amritsar. Both Babloo and Manni were reportedly connected to the demand for Khalistan and Referendum 2020.
Later, in another operation, the UP ATS had arrested another associate of KLF militants from Shamli district. He was allegedly involved in supplying arms and ammunition to the Khalistani terror groups. The conduit was identified as Raj Singh, a resident of Jalalpur in Babri area of Shamli district.
The ATS also arrested one of the cohort of Raj, identified as Asif, also a resident of same locality. The cops recovered a .32 bore and a .315 bore revolvers and half-a-dozen live cartridges from their possession.
The ATS team claimed that Raj Singh was also wanted by the Mohali police for supplying explosives to subversive forces.