NIA arrests Khalistani operative in 2022 terror conspiracy case from Bihar
India News: NIA officials said Kashmir Singh Galwaddi is a ‘hardened criminal’ and is among six people who had escaped from a jail in Punjab’s Nabha in 2016.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested a key Khalistani operative in connection with the 2022 terror conspiracy case. The Khalistani operative, identified as Kashmir Singh Galwaddi from Ludhiana in Punjab, is associated with foreign-based Babbar Khalsa terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu, alias Rinda, reported news agency PTI, citing NIA officials.
Galwaddi was arrested from Motihari, Bihar, in a coordinated action with the local police. NIA officials said Kashmir Singh Galwaddi is a ‘hardened criminal’ and is among six people who had escaped from a jail in Punjab’s Nabha in 2016.
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Since breaking out of the Nabha jail, Kashmir Singh had been ‘actively associated’ with designated Khalistani terrorists, including Rinda, the anti-terror agency added.
Galwaddi was a proclaimed offender in the NIA case for his role relating to involvement in conspiracy, providing shelter, logistics support, and terror funds to aides of the Khalistani terrorists. These aides had escaped to Nepal after carrying out various terror activities in India, including the rocket-propelled grenade attack at the Punjab Police Intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May 2022.
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An NIA Special Court in Delhi had declared Kashmir Singh a proclaimed offender in the 2022 terror conspiracy case and issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him over two years ago. A cash reward of Rs 10 lakh was also announced by the NIA for any information leading to his arrest.
In August 2022, the NIA had registered the terror conspiracy case suo moto to probe the terrorist activities of the heads and members of proscribed terrorist organisations such as Babbar Khalsa, Khalistan Liberation Force and International Sikh Youth Federation, among others.
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The investigations had exposed a terror-criminal nexus, suggesting that these groups, along with organised criminal gangs, were engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition, explosives, IEDs etc., from across the border for terror activities in various parts of the country.