Highlighting that Punjab Police has solved most such cases; Captain Amarinder said the four accused had met abroad where they were trained.
In a major breakthrough in cases of targetted killing of Right wing Hindu leaders in Punjab, the state police has discovered the alleged link of ISI behind the murders while arresting and investigating four people.
"The conspiracy was hatched by ISI on foreign foil to disrupt communal harmony and destabilize the state," said Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, asserting that that it was the eighth such module cracked under his governance.
Punjab has witnessed several such tragetted killings in last two years, including that of RSS leader Brig (retd) Jagdish Gagneja who was shot dead in Jalandhar, followed by killing of pastor in Ludhiana. Another Right wing leader, a member of Shri Hindu Takht Amit Sharma, was shot dead in a similar manner in January. RSS leader Ravinder Gosain was shot dead outside his house in Ludhiana on October 17 and two weeks later, Vipin Sharma, president of Amritsar unit of Hindu Sangharsh Sena, was shot dead in a market.
Highlighting that Punjab Police has solved most such cases; Captain Amarinder said the four accused had met abroad where they were trained. They were using encrypted mobile software for communication with handlers.
These handlers were based in Pakistan and some Western countries.
The accused were identified as: Jimmy Singh, a resident of Jammu who recently returned to India from UK after spending several years there and was apprehended last week from Delhi's IGI airport; Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi, a UK national who was apprehended in Jalandhar and Dharmender aka Guggni, a gangster from Meharban in Ludhiana who was lodged in Nabha Jail and was supplying weapons to the killers.
"The fourth accused, who was the main shooter in the various cases, was caught this afternoon and details about him cannot be disclosed at this juncture as he is under interrogation," said the Chief Minister, adding that the police had both forensic and ballistic evidence against him.
While the Gagneja murder case was transferred to CBI, Gosain's case was recently transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said the weapons used by criminals in all the eight cases were standard 9mm, .32 and .30 bore pistols. "The assailants had left behind footprints in every case, which led us to them," said DGP Arora.
Indicating a growing nexus between gangsters and radicals, Captain Amarinder said the ISI was always looking out to radicalize the youth. "It was evident from investigations that such killings were aimed at fanning communal disturbances to further ISI's anti-India gameplan since there was strong indication of the active involvement of Pakistani intelligence operatives based in Pak and foreign soil," he said.
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