It is not clear if suspects were terrorists or pawns of terror organisations, says Haryana CM

It is not clear yet if the suspects were terrorists or pawns of the terror organisations being used to transport explosives from one place to another, claimed Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

The Chief Minister made the statement hours after the four suspects were nabbed by the police near the Bastara collection barrier in Haryana.

Khattar, while talking to media persons in Rohtak said, "The ammunition recovered is illegal and the people detained, as per the initial information, are also associated with some terror organisation. We do not know yet that they themselves are terrorists or they are being used to transport explosives from one place to another."

“The intentions of the accused would be known only after the completion of the investigation,” Khattar said.

"Based on the information from Punjab, we caught the vehicle on Bastara toll in which some ammunition and cash were recovered. Their intentions will be known only after an investigation. The information as of now is that the incident is not based in Haryana, they were caught with explosives as they were transiting via Haryana," he said.

Superintendent of police, Karnal, Ram Poonia had earlier said that four terror suspects who hailed from Punjab were caught near the Bastara toll in Haryana and also recovered Desi pistol, 31 live ammunition, the iron-container with explosives, and nearly Rs 1.3 lakh.

According to the police, all the four accused belonged to Punjab. While three are from Punjab's Ferozepur, one hails from Ludhiana.

The suspects have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, son of Swarn Singh of village Vinjo Ke, Tehsil Zira, Makhu, Amandeep, son of Swarn Singh, Parminder Singh, son of Jaswant Singh of Makhu and Bhupinder Singh, son of Kuljit Singh of village Bhatia, district Ludhiana.

A case under Section 13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, Section 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities Amendment Orders Act 04, Sector 4 and 5 of Explosives Substances Act, 1908 and 25 of Arms Act, 1959 has been registered against them at Karnal police station.

Meanwhile the Punjab police have been put on high alert after the arrest of the four suspects and recovery of explosives and Improvised Explosive Devices(IED) from them by the Karnal police which was sent by Harwinder Singh Rindi of Pakistan-based Babbar Khalsa.