Ludhiana blast: Punjab police, NIA arrest main accused, hint at Pakistan connect

The Special Task Force of Punjab Police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested the main accused in the Ludhiana court bomb blast case, and hinted a Pakistani connection to the incident.

On December 23 last year, one person was killed and six others injured when a blast ripped across the Ludhiana court complex days in a then poll-bound Punjab.

The cops said they have cracked the case and refused to divulge the identity of the accused for security reasons.

“Punjab Police has cracked the Ludhiana court blast case, the main accused has been arrested by STF team of Border Range,” director general of Punjab police VK Bhawra told reporters.

He said the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that was used for the blast was sourced through a drone backed by Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. Investigations revealed that the IED, smuggled from Pakistan, was airdropped in India by a drone.

On May 20, the STF had arrested five people including a juvenile in the case while they were trying to smuggle IED from Pakistan. The juvenile reportedly provided technical assistance to the couriers of Khalistani groups by generating international numbers from the internet to make calls.

The accused are Surmukh Singh, Harpreet Singh, Dilbag Singh alias Baggo, and Savinder Singh alias Bhola apart from the juvenile. Dilbagh Singh reportedly received the IED twp days before the blast and handed it over to Surmukh Singh. The latter gave it to Gagandeep Singh – a former Punjab cop dismissed from service – who died while planting the bomb.

Following the blast, the NIA had filed a case against Khalistani terrorist Jaswinder Singh Multani, who is a member of banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and lives in Germany.