Faridabad: A man wanted for a hand grenade attack in Punjab was arrested from a village in Faridabad this week, police said on Thursday, in a joint operation that investigators hope will open up the network behind a string of blasts in the state.
Kulwant Singh, a resident of Ferozepur district, was picked up from Panchayati Jhuggi village, where he had gone to visit his aunt, according to the Faridabad police. A team of Punjab Police has since taken him to Punjab. Police said he was arrested on Wednesday.
He was wanted in connection with a grenade attack in Jalalabad in Fazilka district on September 13. Investigative agencies are now examining his contacts and the network he is alleged to have worked with.
Police allege that Singh has links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and to the Shahzad Bhatti Network, described by security agencies as a Pakistan-based syndicate associated with grenade, IED and petrol bomb attacks and targeted killings in India.
He is also wanted in connection with the recovery of 8 kg of RDX in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan, a senior police officer said. That recovery has been under investigation by the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad, with teams from the state's intelligence and police units working on the case for weeks.
The arrest follows a search that had been running since the Jalalabad attack. Police said the lead came from information gathered during the investigation that Singh was expected at his aunt's residence, after which the two forces moved together.
Jalalabad, a town in Fazilka close to the Pakistan border, has seen repeated security scares in recent years. The September 13 attack near the city police station area was one of a series of grenade incidents that have kept Punjab's counter-intelligence units stretched.
What the arrest yields matters beyond one case. Investigators are trying to establish how a consignment of explosives recovered in Rajasthan connects, if at all, to the grenade used in Jalalabad, and who was meant to receive the material.
No chargesheet has been filed and Singh has not been convicted in any of these matters. Police have not said whether he has legal representation or what he has told them in questioning.