India’s anti-terror agency, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), raided 31 locations across Punjab and Haryana states to locate the culprits involved in the attacks on Indian High Commission in London on March 19.
The agency carried out searches on Tuesday (August 1) to search and identify and arrest all those involved in the attack organised by pro-Khalistani elements.
“It has been carrying out extensive investigations into the incident with a view to ensuring there is no repeat of such breach of security, disrespect to the Indian National Flag or any threat to Indian interests abroad,” said the NIA statement.
The team seized digital data containing information related to those involved in the attack on the high commission and other incriminating documents, the spokesperson said.
During its search operation, the agency raised the house of Soni Kaur, a widow living at Dhurkot Ransih village in Nihal Singh Wala sub-division of Moga district, the Hindustan newspaper reported.
According to the NIA, her son and daughter had allegedly participated in the protest outside the Indian high commission.
The brother-sister duo had moved to the UK last year and their father Jaswinder Singh died a few years ago.
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During searches, the NIA team recovered 37 live cartridges from the house. Kaur, however, said her husband had a licenced gun which they sold after his death. But they were not able to sell the cartridges, she said.
Kaur has been asked to appear at the agency’s headquarters in New Delhi on August 10 for questioning.
Notably, Kaur’s father-in-law Jagtar Singh was the driver of slain militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale—a leading figure in the Khalistani movement.
The raids come after an NIA team visited UK in May to gather evidence in the case.
Subsequently, “crowdsourcing of information” was also initiated to identify and collect information about the UK-based entities and individuals involved in the incident. The attackers were identified based on those details.
On March 19, around 50 people attacked the High Commission of India and caused disrespect to the Indian National flag, apart from damaging public property and causing injuries to officials of the high commission.
The agency said that the attack was organised by Gurcharan Singh, Dal Khalsa, United Kingdom; Avtar Singh Khanda of Khalistan Liberation Force (who recently died); Jasvir Singh and many of their associates, both Indian and foreign nationals, who have been identified during the NIA investigations.
(With inputs from agencies)
