Amritsar: The Amritsar Commissionerate Police achieved a major counter-terrorism breakthrough after dismantling two cross-border, Pakistan-backed terror modules sponsored by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), arresting nine individuals including four juveniles. Addressing media representatives on Tuesday, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar disclosed that the suspects were operating on direct instructions from foreign-based ISI handlers tasked with recruiting local youth, procuring illegal weapons, conducting reconnaissance on security personnel, and carrying out targeted attacks across northern India. Law enforcement officers seized three country-made pistols, nine live cartridges, four petrol bottle bombs, a lighter, and a stolen motorcycle utilized for criminal operations during coordinated raids across multiple locations.
Investigations revealed that eight members associated with one of the busted modules had recently travelled to New Delhi to infiltrate the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) youth protest at Jantar Mantar. According to police reports, the operatives received local logistical assistance in the national capital, including raw materials to assemble petrol bombs intended to target public gatherings, uniformed security personnel, and government installations. The primary suspect, identified as nineteen-year-old Sukhman Singh of Joth village, admitted during interrogation that he was in direct contact with a Pakistan-based handler who assigned him to execute a violent strike at the Jantar Mantar demonstration site. Although the operatives visited the protest location alongside accomplices, their plot failed due to heightened security measures and operational complications.
Simultaneously, the secondary module was apprehended while carrying out hostile surveillance on key infrastructure targets, specifically mounting closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras along strategic railway tracks in the region. Police officials confirmed that the surveillance camera feeds captured along the railway tracks were being transmitted directly across the border to Pakistani intelligence handlers. Financial transactions related to purchasing the camera equipment were routed via digital payment platforms, financed through hawala channels and facilitated by incarcerated associates Harman Singh and Sukhdev Singh from inside Amritsar Central Jail. Both inmates were formally arrested on production warrants after investigators uncovered their roles in funding equipment and orchestrating illegal arms cases.
The arrested adult suspects have been identified as nineteen-year-old Vansh Kumar, twenty-four-year-old tea shop worker Harman Singh, thirty-year-old driver Sukhdev Singh, twenty-year-old Anmol Singh, and nineteen-year-old farm worker Sukhman Singh, alongside four minors. Senior police officials confirmed that the recruits had received specialized training from foreign handlers on manufacturing and throwing petrol bombs, alongside conducting reconnaissance on police infrastructure. Three separate cases have been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act at the Mohkampura, Airport, and C-Division police stations in Amritsar as law enforcement agencies continue probing the financial trail and backward linkages of the network.
