Pakistan’s ISI reviving Khalistan groups with D Company funds, Delhi Police says

Delhi Police officials say high-intensity serial blasts were planned across 6 metro cities and in other states, note that IEDs recovered from UP were 'similar' to those found in Punjab.

Representational image | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has information that the “Pakistan-ISI-underworld terror module” is working to revive the militant groups across the country, including the Khalistani separatist groups banned in India, ThePrint has learnt.

According to police sources, “high-intensity serial blasts” were planned across six metro cities — Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai — and in other states.

“The Pakistan ISI is working to revive the separatists groups from Punjab in order to destabilise the country. The IEDs recovered from UP are similar to the ones recovered in Punjab; the systems are the same. Underworld is funding to revive the pro-Khalistan groups here in India,” a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Complex web

This Tuesday, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested six men — Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, Osama, Moolchand, Zeeshan, Mohammad Abu Bakar, and Mohammad Amir Javed — who allegedly backed the Pakistan ISI terror module.

The underworld’s infamous ‘D Company’ was allegedly providing logistical support and funding the entire plan. Shaikh, according to the police, is a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees, and has links to the D Company.

ThePrint had earlier reported that the police suspect links between the recent explosive seizures from the six accused — sophisticated RDX-based IEDs, pistols and grenades — and the ‘tiffin box bomb’ recovered from Punjab’s Amritsar.

Explosives in both cases were dropped off via drones from Pakistan’s bordering villages, police sources said.

“The Punjab terror modules were working together with the Pakistan-ISI terror module, planning attacks across major cities and states. Those arrested by the Special Cell, part of the Pakistan-ISI module, were in touch with another terror module of which Gurmukh Singh, son of the nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, is suspected to be a part of. The style of the explosives and the guns recovered is the same,” a source said.

Last month, Gurmukh Singh was arrested following the recovery of grenades, a ‘tiffin’ bomb and some pistols.

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh Wednesday ordered a high alert in the state after four more men — Rubal Singh, Vicky Bhutti, Malkeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh — were arrested in the tiffin box bomb case. The module was allegedly functioning on the instructions of an intelligence officer Qasim and International Sikh Youth Federation chief Lakhbir Singh Rode.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police are searching for Umedur Rahman, Osama’s maternal uncle, who is on the run. “His father Usaidur Rahman is based in the Gulf, and is in direct contact with the Pakistan ISI. We suspect he was coordinating the transfer of explosives. Osama and Zeeshan were called to Muscat by him, and then asked to join the training in Pakistan,” the source said.

(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)