Ahmedabad : The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has apprehended a man wanted by the Punjab police for his alleged involvement in smuggling arms for a gang operating at the behest of Pakistan-based terrorist networks to carry out grenade attacks in the country,” an official said. He will be handed over to the Punjab police. Recently, police in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district registered a case against certain individuals for smuggling and detonating grenades and helping terrorist networks operating across the border,” the release said.
Preliminary probe revealed the main accused of the case, Manu Agwan and Maninder Billa, who are currently in Malaysia, were recruiting operatives in Punjab at the behest of handlers of Pakistan’s ISI to carry out grenade attacks in densely populated areas of Punjab and other States to spread terror,” the release added. The Punjab police learnt about Singh’s role in smuggling two grenades and two pistols as part of the conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, the release said.
Based on the information shared by the Punjab police, the ATS team reached Halol and learnt that Singh had started working as a labourer in a factory. He was apprehended from a hotel and brought here for further questioning. Punjab police arrested two men, Panthbir Singh and Jaskirat Singh, who revealed the involvement of another accused, Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi Billa, a resident of Batala, who fled the state. Punjab police shared this information with Gujarat ATS, which began working on the input.
ATS teams, supervised by Narmada district police chief Harsh Upadhyay, traced the suspect to Halol, where he was employed as an industrial labourer. A team led by inspector N R Brahmbhatt, inspector Y J Gurjar, sub-inspector M N Patel, and ATS staff reached Halol and located a suspicious man at a hotel. On questioning, he confirmed he was Gurpreet Singh.
