Lashkar's bigger strike plan in Punjab also had Pathankot on terror radar

Arrested Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Jagtar Singh Tara's interrogation this year had revealed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had a bigger strike plan in Punjab.

Sikh militants and LeT had jointly hatched a plan in Pakistan to air drop four Lashkar terrorists in Punjab's Pathankot in 2014 using a specially designed glider. Surprisingly, the police had overlooked it.

This comes as Indian intelligence agencies are still struggling to decode how the three terrorists who killed seven people in Punjab's Dinanagar on July 27 had sneaked into Indian territory and roamed free for nearly a week in the state.

Tara was involved in the conspiracy for assassinating former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh but had escaped from Chandigarh's Burail Jail in 2004. He was arrested from Thailand in January this year

Sources told Mail Today that Tara ordered a Rs 10-lakh glider from Germany in 2013 for dropping the terrorists.

"It was also planned that a Khalistan supporter will open a roadside eatery (dhaba) for the terrorists till they planned their strike. However, the glider developed snags and failed to air drop the terrorists in Pathankot.

It is still not known if and where the terrorists had actually landed or crash-landed," sources said.

They added that KTF ultra Harjit Singh, currently hiding in Pakistan, had helped Tara in procuring the glider. But Tara left Pakistan and went to Thailand after his plan failed.

Tara had got some youth from Jalandhar and Bhatinda to Thailand and trained them in making bombs.

The police nabbed one of the youth in Bhatinda who disclosed Tara's whereabouts in Thailand.

Now when involvement of LeT terrorists has come to light again, security agencies are linking Tara's plans to the Dinanagar terror incident.

Meanwhile, the Gurdaspur police on Friday conducted the post-mortem examination of the three terrorists.