New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against six accused alleged Khalistani terrorists including one Pakistani in connection with Punjab’s Jalalabad bomb blast case before the NIA Special Court in SAS Nagar, Punjab.
The NIA chargesheeted Sukhwinder Singh, Parveen Singh, Gurpreet Singh alias Gora, Ranjit Singh, Pakistani national Habib Khan and Lakhbir Singh Rode, (a Pakistan based designated terrorist).
They were chargesheeted under sections 3, 4, 5 & 6 of the Explosive Substances Act, sections 21B, 27A and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act; sections 16, 17, 18, 18B, 20, 38 & 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code.
The case pertains to a bomb explosion in Jalalabad town of Fazilka district of Punjab on September 15, 2021 in which one person was killed.
Initially a case was lodged with the Punjab Police and later the probe was taken over by the NIA.
The NIA learnt during the investigation that Pakistan based designated terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode, self-styled chief of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), and his associates were behind the blast.
The NIA found that the accused had hatched a conspiracy to cause multiple explosions at crowded places in Punjab to effect large scale casualties and strike terror in the hearts of people.
“On the directions of Rode, another Pakistan based narco-terror operative Habib Khan alias Doctor had radicalised and recruited Balwinder Singh and Sukhwinder Singh and motivated them to plant bombs using pre-assembled Improvised Explosive Devices (tiffin bombs) smuggled along with heroin from across the border. In furtherance of their plan, 8 pre-assembled tiffin bombs (along with training material) were received by Binder Singh (also recruited by Habib Khan) and Sukhwinder Singh along with a large quantity of heroin and money, sent to fund their terror activities. Prior to the bomb explosion that occurred in Jalalabad, this terrorist gang had also set ablaze a car as well as a few shops in Ferozpur city,” the NIA mentioned in the chargesheet.
Binder Singh and Sukhwinder Singh had conducted a reconnaissance of a crowded market in Jalalabad town for carrying out the explosion. While Binder Singh was trying to retrieve the motorcycle along with the planted tiffin bomb, as it had not exploded at the designated time, he was killed on the spot due to the delayed explosion.
Further investigation in the matter is underway.
