Chandigarh, November 12: Interrogation of the Jalandhar blast accused has established that a nexus of Kashmiri and Khalistani militant organisations is trying to revive militancy in Punjab on the directions of Pakistan’s ISI.
Intelligence agencies fear that Khalistan militants are getting consignments of illegal weapons including AK 56, magazines, pistols and RDX from Pakistan as the same cannot be sourced from Jammu.
There are indications that Khalistan militants are providing arms and ammunition to Kashmiri militants who were behind five blasts in Punjab including Chandigarh.
Three Kashmiri students, who were arrested on October 10 from Jalandhar, had caused four low-intensity blasts at Maksudan police station in Jalandhar. The bombs were thrown at different areas of the police station, injuring one policeman.
The accused Zahid Gulzar, Idris Shah and Yusuf Rafiq Batt were engineering students of CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology in Jalandhar. They were part of a terror module called Ansar-Ghazwat-Ul-Hind. Police had also recovered weapons, including an assault rifle and explosives, from Zahir’s hostel room.
The investigation has revealed that the Al Qaeda’s Kashmir outfit Ansar -Ghazwat- Ul- Hind chief Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Musa had also directed the Kashmiri students to plant a grenade at the Chandigarh bus stand.
A fourth student, Suhail Ahmad Bhat, who was arrested from Chandigarh on October 11, has told the agencies that he, along with an unidentified Kashmiri militant, was asked by the area commander of the terror outfit to plant a grenade at ISBT Chandigarh.
However, he got scared and failed to explode the grenade which was brought from Jalandhar in a bus. The grenade, according to sources, was returned to a handler based in Jammu.
The police has launched a manhunt to arrest two unknown Kashmiri militants who had provided four grenades to the three students arrested from Jalandhar and one grenade to Suhail who was arrested from Mohali. An unknown militant, who accompanied Suhail is also part of the hunt.
