IT WAS AROUND 7.45 PM on the night of May 9 when the intelligence wing headquarters of Punjab Police in scenic Mohali was suddenly rocked by a mini blast and the sound of shattered window panes. The attack, using an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), happened when most of the sleuths had left for the day, so there were no casualties. But it again raised a security agencies bogey—the long shadow of the Khalistan movement hasn’t faded away as yet.
Soon after the attack, a voice note landed at Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s office claiming to be from New York-based Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the banned Khalistani outfit Sikhs for Justice. It claimed credit for the attack in Mohali and left a threat that the Shimla Police HQ could be next. But investigators soon revealed that it was a bogus claim; the Mohali attack was apparently engineered by gangster-turned militant Harvinder Singh Sandhu, a.k.a. Rinda Sandhu.
This story is from the May 23, 2022 edition of India Today.
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This story is from the May 23, 2022 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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