Chandigarh police nab man for hurling grenade at house, say BKI and ISI are involved

Punjab Police on Friday (September 13, 2024) said that they had cracked the ‘Chandigarh grenade blast’ case by arresting a man, in a joint operation with central agencies. They claimed that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-backed Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Singh alias Rinda of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and U.S.-based Harpreet Singh alias Happy Passia masterminded the operation.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said the arrested man was Rohan Masih, a resident of Passia village in Amritsar. In a statement, he said police recovered a sophisticated 9 mm Glock pistol along with ammunition from his possession.

On September 11, a hand grenade was lobbed at a house in Chandigarh’s sector 10. Later, Chandigarh (Union Territory) police investigated the incident and found that two individuals arrived on an auto-rickshaw and one of them hurled a hand grenade at the house. The house belongs to KK Malhotra, a retired principal of an institute in Himachal Pradesh.

“The hand grenade used in this incident is a military grade equipment smuggled from across the border through drone with the help of ISI. Police have identified the other accused person as well, and raids are being conducted to nab him,” said the DGP.

He said the preliminary investigation has revealed that Rohan, who has been working in Jammu and Kashmir for the past few years, knew Happy Passia from Passia village. Happy Passia instructed Rohan to carry out the attack, promising financial rewards, he said.

“During questioning, accused Rohan confessed to (his) involvement in the grenade blast, revealing he acted at the behest of Happy Passia, who provided the hand grenade and weapons through his associates. Happy Passia had also arranged finances and logistics for them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) in Amritsar Sukhminder Singh Mann said that prima facie it appeared that the accused targeted a particular person as the same terror group had attempted a similar attack at the same location last year. That attempt was foiled by the Punjab Police with the arrest of two operatives identified as Bikramjit Singh alias Raja of Batala and Bawa Singh of Majitha, he added.