'Top politicians, officials among Khalsa targets'

[Mehtab Singh]

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/01khalsa.htm

'Top politicians, officials among Khalsa targets'

Onkar Singh in New Delhi | June 01, 2005 10:27 IST

Delhi police has forwarded to the Union home ministry a confidential list of Babbar Khalsa targets that include some top politicians and bureaucrats.

The names were gleaned during interrogation of the Khalsa terrorists who were arrested for their involvement in the Delhi cinema bomb blasts.

Joint commissioner of police in charge of anti-terrorists cell Karnail Singh told rediff.com on Wednesday that the list was sent for action to the government.

"We interrogated Balvinder Singh, who was picked up from his village in Nawanshahar in Punjab, and Jagannath, who told us they had other targets in mind. They had brought the explosives (RDX) two months back and wanted to create terror," he said.

Asked why the militants selected the two cinema houses Satyam and Liberty, which were screening the film Jo Bole So Nihal, Karnail Singh said that the targets were randomly chosen and had nothing to do with the film's controversy.

"They wanted to plant bombs at crowded places. They also had other soft targets in mind. Jagannath was arrested from the house of his relative in Madipur where he was hiding and RDX, gold and cash was recovered from there," he said.

He ruled out resurgence of Babbar Khalsa International's terrorist activities in India.

The group, headed by Wadhwa Singh, is known to have strong links with the Inter-Services Intelligence.

"This is a splinter group, which decided to carry out blasts to prove to the ISI that it was alive and kicking. The militants executed the blast under pressure from Wadhwa Singh, who is hiding in Pakistan. We caught them and have alerted the other states. I am not sure if this can be called resurgence of Babbar Khalsa International," he said.