Ludhiana encounter: Two Babbar Khalsa-linked terrorists injured in gunfight with police in Punjab
Two terrorists linked to the Babbar Khalsa International outfit were critically injured in an encounter with the Punjab Police in Ludhiana on Thursday.
Two suspected members of a Babbar Khalsa International-linked terror module were critically injured in a police encounter near the Ladowal Toll Plaza on the Delhi-Amritsar National Highway in Ludhiana on Tuesday.
Ludhiana Commissioner Swapan Sharma said the police had earlier busted a terror module and arrested three people. Today, there was an input that two Babbar Khalsa International-linked terrorists, who were acting on instructions from the ISI, were in the area. We laid a trap, and the two suspects are seriously injured in an encounter till now, he said.
Reports suggest the suspects had allegedly been tasked with collecting grenades and throwing them at designated locations.
Links with Lawrence Bishnoi gang
In a post on X, Ludhiana Police said preliminary investigation reveals that the accused were involved in coordinating pickup and delivery of the consignment across states and carrying out terror attacks. They have also been found to have links with Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Injured terrorists critical, weapons recovered
The trap was laid based on information obtained during the interrogation of the 3 terrorists who had been arrested earlier and were residents of Punjab, Haryana and Bihar. The terrorists opened fire on the police, and in the retaliatory firing one of them was hit by 3 bullets and the other by 1 bullet. Both have been admitted to a hospital, and one of them is in serious condition.
Recoveries made include 2 Chinese grenades, 5 Chinese pistols and more than 50 cartridges.
Grenade attacks planned
According to the police, the terrorists had come to collect grenades and carry out an attack on the instructions of a Pakistani handler. The suspects had mapped out locations in the state and were planning to hurl grenades at targets on the directions of a handler from across the border. The area has been cordoned off, and heavy police personnel have been deployed in view of the incident.
Delhi blast and security alert in India
The encounter in the wake of a security alert across the country, following the car explosion near Delhi's Red Fort which left 15 people dead. The explosion was part of a wider conspiracy hatched by a white-collar terror module involving doctors operating out of the Al-Falah University in Faridabad. These terrorists were operating at the behest of the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group in Pakistan.
With inputs from Tushar Bharti