For representation only. File photo

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 4

The Centre has asked the National Investigation Agency to investigate the recent recovery of huge arms, ammunition and communication hardware in Punjab.

Officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Punjab government had asked for the central agency to step in after the consignment was suspected to have been delivered using drones from across the border. Punjab Police claims that their bust a terror module of the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF)— backed by a group based in Pakistan and Germany—last month had revealed that the group had planned a series of strikes in Punjab and adjoining states.

Officials quoted the MHA’s order to say that the central government believed that the case involved scheduled offences under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 and “these are required to be investigated by the NIA in accordance with the Act and is hereby directed to take up the investigation of the aforesaid offences”.

The offences included a “conspiracy to carry out terrorist activity to create communal tension, instability and revival of terrorism in Punjab”, the official said.

Initial investigations found that drones were used to deliver weapons and communication hardware from Pakistan, the MHA official said, adding that according to reports four people were arrested from the outskirts of Chohla Sahib Village in Tarn Taran district of the state on September 22. A huge cache of arms, including five AK-47 rifles, pistols, satellite phones and hand grenades were seized from them, they said.

The weapons were suspected to have been delivered from across the border by the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI for jihadi and pro-Khalistani terrorist outfits working under its command, Punjab Police had said.