Militant on bail held for bus terminus blast

Chandigarh:Suspicion confirmed. The blast at the Sector 17 Inter-State Bus Terminus was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED). It was reportedly planted by an alleged Punjab militant out on bail from the Jammu jail after spending six years behind bars. Chandigarh was chosen for “publicity reasons�.

Claiming to have arrested the alleged militant just a day after the blast, the local police today asserted that accused Charanjit Singh had caused the explosion with “full deliberation� for spreading panic among the residents, and with the motive of killing people.

“Fear and apprehensions� prevented the Pak-trained militant from exploding the crude bomb at a more crowded place even though it would have caused much more damage, senior police officers claimed.

Addressing a press conference this evening, Chandigarh’s Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Satish Chandra said 26-year-old Charanjit Singh, belonging to the ISYF (Rodhe) group, was taken into custody from the Sector 43 bus stand on the grounds of causing the blast on Thursday night. At least seven persons, including a woman, were injured in it.

In all probability, Charanjit Singh was trying to escape from the city for causing blasts at other places. The IGP added that half kg explosive and two more pipe bombs prepared from chemicals easily available in the market, were found from his bag.

A mobile phone was also seized. The record of the calls made and received by Charanjit Singh showed that he was in touch with certain persons in the USA and other places.

The IGP said Charanjit Singh had no links with recently arrested Jagtar Singh Hawara, the alleged assassin of Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh. But the possibility of his being in touch with Hawara’s still-at-large co-accused Paramjit Singh Bheora was being probed.

His links with other militants were also being looked into. So far, they had not found anything that would link the blast with the Prime Minister’s proposed visit, the IGP said.

Going into the sequence of events, the IGP said Charanjit Singh of Bhani village in Kapurthala district got in touch with terrorist masterminds in the USA and other places soon after his release from the Jammu jail some two months back. For the purpose, he started sitting in an STD booth taken on rent.

He procured explosive material and “GI� pipes from Jalandhar. Charanjit Singh arrived in the city on Thursday itself and exploded the IED with the help of “basic ignition cord used in crackers�. He was trained in handling explosives and arms by the ISI during his stay in Pakistan, the IGP said.

A spokesman for the Chandigarh Police added preliminary investigations carried out by them had revealed that Charanjit Singh was inducted when he was just 18 and was motivated by the ISYF (Rhode) activists to go to Pakistan for training way back in 1999.

He along with another youngster went by air to Bangkok and then flew to Lahore. During their two-month stay in Pakistan, they met alleged terrorist leaders including Wadhawa Singh of the Babbar Khalsa International.

The spokesman added that Charanjit Singh was launched from across the border in Samba, along with trained border-crosser Sarfraj. But the two were arrested and a huge consignment of arms and explosives were recovered from them.