POLICE IDENTIFY FIVE MORE OPERATIVES OF LANDA AND RINDA GANG: SSP AMRITSAR RURAL

With Punjab Police having further intensified vigil and alertness against anti-social elements ahead of the festival season on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Amritsar Rural Police has busted an ISI-backed Narco-Terrorism module. Its main operative has been arrested after recovering arms and explosives from his possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday. The module is being jointly operated by Canada-based Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, Pakistan-based Harvinder Singh Rinda and Italy-based Harpreet Singh alias Happy. The arrested accused has been identified as Yograj Singh alias Yog, resident of Village Rajoke in Tarn Taran, besides, the Police have also identified five more accomplices, who were part of the module in carrying out illegal activities across Punjab and adjoining states. The police have recovered a one RDX loaded Tiffin Box fabricated into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or Tiffin Bomb; two sophisticated AK-56 assault rifles along with two magazines and 30 live cartridges; one .

30 bore pistol along with 6 live cartridges; and 2 KG Heroin from the accused. DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the arrested accused Yograj is the main operative of this module and wanted by the state police and Central Enforcement Agencies in at least five criminal cases including the one wherein five AK-47 assault rifles were seized in Tarn Taran in September 2019. He said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the cross-border operations of arms-explosives-drugs smuggling was mainly handled by Yograj on the directions of terrorists/gangsters Landa, Rinda and Happy and jailed smuggler Gurpavitar alias Sai of Lakhna, Tarn Taran. Yograj had been active in recovery and further delivery of consignments of Arms and Drugs at a large scale, he added. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Swapan Sharma said that the Police has made a major strike in exposing members of Landa-Rinda terror module. In the present module, the Police have managed to identify five operatives of the gang and manhunt has been launched to nab them, he added. He said that further investigations are on, and more recoveries of arms and explosives are expected soon. Meanwhile, FIR no 107 dated 04/10/2022 has been registered under sections 21/27-A/29/61/85 of the NDPS Act and sections 25/54/59 of Arms Act at Police Station Ramdas in Amritsar Rural.