On Friday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet against five suspected Khalistani operatives in a case involving arms and narcotics smuggling through drones from across the border. The accused individuals named in the chargesheet are Harmesh Singh, Darvesh Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Gagandeep Singh, and Lakhbir Singh Rode, all residents of Punjab.
The NIA stated that the investigation revealed that these individuals smuggled illegal consignments of arms, ammunition, explosives, and narcotics from across the India-Pakistan border with the intent of carrying out terror activities in India. The chargesheeted accused allegedly received these illegal consignments sent by the absconding accused Lakhbir Singh Rode, Chief of ISYF (a banned terrorist organization), and his associates from Pakistan via drones. The received consignments were discreetly passed on to other accused persons involved in the conspiracy to carry out subversive activities in India.
The case was initially registered at Mamdot police station in Punjab’s Ferozepur on August 8 last year, and the NIA took over the case in November of the same year. Lakhbir Singh Rode is also under investigation in connection with the 2020 killing of Comrade Balwinder Singh Sandhu in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district. Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a Shaurya Chakra recipient for fighting militancy in Punjab, was assassinated at his home in Bhikhiwind by unidentified bikers on October 16, 2020. The NIA had previously stated that the killing was executed as part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Pakistan-based Khalistani terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode and his handlers in the Pakistan intelligence agency, ISI. The attack was carried out through Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikariwal, a gangster-turned-terrorist from Gurdaspur district.
