The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested Kashmir Singh Galwaddi, a key Khalistani operative, associated with foreign-based Babbar Khalsa terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, and one of the criminals who had escaped during Punjab’s Nabha jail break in 2016, an official statement said.
The breakthrough came when the NIA nabbed Galwaddi of Punjab’s Ludhiana from Motihari, Bihar, in coordination with local police in connection with a Khalistani terror conspiracy case, the statement said.
Since breaking out of Nabha jail, Kashmir Singh had been actively associated with designated Khalistani terrorists, including Rinda, it said.
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An important node of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Rinda’s terror gang in Nepal, Kashmir was a proclaimed offender in the NIA case for his role relating to involvement in conspiracy, providing shelter, logistics support and terror funds to aides of the Khalistani terrorists, said the statement issued by the probe agency.
These aides had escaped to Nepal after carrying out various terror activities in India, including the RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attack at the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters, the NIA said.
The NIA had registered the terror conspiracy case suo moto in August 2022 to probe the terrorist activities of chiefs/members of proscribed terrorist organisations such as BKI, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), among others, it said.
The investigations had exposed a terror-criminal nexus, suggesting that these terror groups along with organised criminal gangs were engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition explosive, IEDs etc from across the border to carry out terror activities in various parts of the country, the NIA said.
NIA Special Court in Delhi had declared Kashmir Singh a proclaimed offender in the 2022 terror conspiracy case and had also issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him over the last couple of years, it said.
A cash reward of Rs 10 lakh was also announced by the NIA for information leading to his arrest.
The NIA had in July 2023 chargesheeted nine accused, including Sandhu and another Khalistani terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, in the terror case followed by two supplementary chargesheets against six others.
In August 2024, the anti-terror agency had successfully secured the extradition of Landa’s brother Tarsem Singh from UAE and filed a third supplementary chargesheet against him in December.
The Tribune
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