LUCKNOW Professional-Khalistan sympathisers, who supplied shelter to 3 alleged Khalistani terrorists gunned down in an encounter in Pilibhit on Monday, are on the radar of the UP ATS and the Nationwide Investigation Company, mentioned officers on Thursday.
The STF had gunned down three alleged terrorists, who have been concerned in a grenade assault on a police outpost in Gurdaspur district of Punjab on December 18. (Pic for illustration)
Safety businesses try to show the present nexus of pro-Khalistan supporters within the Terai belt, together with Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly and Badaun. This area comprising a big inhabitants of Sikhs is claimed to be a protected haven for extremists. In June, an alert was sounded when posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who led the Khalistan motion, and different separatists have been put up outdoors gurudwaras in Pilibhit and Bareilly.
The STF had gunned down three alleged terrorists, who have been concerned in a grenade assault on a police outpost in Gurdaspur district of Punjab on December 18, and recovered two AK rifles and two Glock pistols, together with an enormous cache of ammunition.
SP (Pilibhit) Avinash Pandey mentioned the three deceased – Gurwinder Singh, 25, Virendra Singh alias Ravi, 23, Jasan Preet Singh alias Pratap Singh, 18, of Gurdaspur – had stayed in a resort on Puranpur freeway on faux identification playing cards. Gurwinder offered IDs that talked about him as Manjeet Singh, Virendra as Kuldeep Singh and Jasan Preet Singh as Heera Singh. The trio was proven as residents of Aadarsh Nagar, Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
The ATS was attempting to establish identities of people that helped them in resort keep and in bringing them from Punjab to Pilibhit. Two locals had been noticed accompanying them after they entered the resort round 8pm on December 20. The trio left the resort round 9.30pm on December 21. They have been killed in an encounter on December 23, he added.
Two locals, who have been taken into custody, revealed that the trio reached Pilibhit with the assistance of a bus operator, who runs a day by day bus service from Lakhimpur Kheri to Amritsar. The operator, who was nonetheless out of police attain, was suspected of serving to them go away Punjab after the assault on a police outpost on December 18. The trio travelled from Punjab to Pilibhit through Delhi with the assistance of the bus operator because it was troublesome to maneuver in public transport with ammunition. A household of Lakhimpur Kheri, who’re shut kinfolk of one of many killed militants, have been additionally on the radar of safety businesses and being quizzed.