Punjab Police on Wednesday claimed to have foiled a possible terrorist attack in the border state with the arrest of a highly radicalised operative identified as Ranjit Singh of village Sohal in Tarn Taran, linked with foreign-based terrorist entities,

The police have also recovered two Chinese-made P-86 hand grenades and two pistols along with live cartridges besides a black coloured Royal Enfield motorcycle bearing registration number PB02-DA-6685 from his possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab, Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota said.

The DGP said acting on intelligence inputs about the presence of Ranjit Singh in the area of Amritsar, special teams from SSOC Amritsar were sent to the specified area to spot the suspect and Ranjit Singh was apprehended.

Punjab has been witnessing a huge inflow of hand grenades and tiffin bombs along with other weapons. Recently, the state has also seen a couple of grenade blasts including at CIA Nawanshahr and Cantonment area in Pathankot besides the recovery of an unexploded hand grenade from the Zira area.

Sahota said during the investigation, Ranjit revealed that he had formed a group named “Kaum De Rakhe” (saviors of the community) to collect funds on the pretext of social work, and through this group, he got in touch with various radical and terrorist elements based in the UK and other countries through social media and extended his help to form sleeper cells under the garb of his social work.

Ranjit further disclosed that recently he had received a consignment of arms and explosives, and was planning to carry out a terror strike to create an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness in the border state, he said.

The DGP said Ranjit was also part of a group, which had vandalised statues of folk dancers installed at the heritage street leading to Golden Temple Amritsar on 15 January 2020. Ranjit was arrested by the police in a statue vandalising case and was presently on bail, he added.

ADGP (internal security) RN Dhoke said further efforts are being made to ascertain the identity of the UK end, who had arranged the consignment, and also his other Indian associates.