The NIA has been probing the attacks on the Indian consulate in San Francisco in a bid to identify and prosecute those responsible.
Published Nov 22, 2023 | 7:57 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 22, 2023 | 7:57 PM
Weapons recovered from the accused. (Supplied)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday, 22 November, raided multiple locations across Punjab and Haryana as part of its continuing investigations into the attacks on the Consulate General of India, San Francisco, USA.
A total of 14 locations were raided in both states by the NIA teams in a bid to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the 19 March and 2 July attacks, involving criminal trespass, vandalism, damage to public property, and attempts to cause hurt to the Consulate officials and set the Consulate building on fire through acts of arson.
The locations raided by NIA on Wednesday were spread across the districts of Moga, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, Mohali and Patiala in Punjab, and Kurukshetra, and Yamunanagar in Haryana.
The crackdown led to the seizure of digital data containing information related to the accused persons, along with other incriminating documents.
The NIA has been probing the case with the aim to identify and prosecute the attackers and the assailants of the attacks and send a strong message to such anti-Indian elements.
A team of the NIA visited San Francisco in August to investigate the incidents of attacks on the Consulate through violent acts of arson and vandalism leading to fear among the Consulate staff and the community.
As part of its investigations, NIA has crowd-sourced information to identify and collect information about US-based entities and individuals involved in these violent incidents.
The agency has already identified certain individuals who were part of the conspiracy behind the repeated attacks. These include the attackers and many of their associates, who are both Indian and foreign nationals.
The Consulate General of India in San Francisco was attacked on 19 March by a group of assailants who committed criminal trespass, damaged public property, and attacked officials of the Consulate.
Prior to this attack, on the same day, some attackers attempted to set the Consulate building on fire by sprinkling inflammable substances early in the morning.
Subsequently on 2 July, at midnight, a few persons attempted to set the Consulate building on fire.
Meanwhile in a major blow to organised crime, Punjab Police on Wednesday have averted planned target killings in the state with the arrest of three members linked to ISI-controlled Pakistan-based terror module.
Those arrested have been identified as Rajbhupinder Singh, Raman Kumar and Jagjit Singh. Police have also recovered eight pistols including three 0.30 bore pistols and five 0.32 bore pistols along with nine Magazines and 30 live cartridges from their possession.
DGP Gaurav Yadav said that following the inputs, Police teams from Counter Intelligence, Bathinda laid a special naka at village Gobindpura in Bathinda and arrested the accused persons.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested persons were in contact with persons currently lodged in Sangrur Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, he added.
Sharing more details, Assistant Inspector General, Counter Intelligence Avneet Kaur Sidhu said, “The probe revealed that the arrested accused persons had brought weapons from Madhya Pradesh and were tasked to carry out target killings in the state to create panic in the society.”
He added, “Further investigations are on to unveil forward & backward linkages and recovery of more weapons is expected”.
