Arrested by the national investigation agency (NIA) on his arrival from Cyprus, Khalistani terrorist Gurdeep Singh Nijjar is wanted in Punjab in a case of supply of weapons for terrorism in Fatehgarh Sahib district.

After the NIA investigations are over, the Punjab Police is planning to take him on a production warrant as the police believe Nijjar is one of the key players involved in spreading venom against India among the Sikh youth and indoctrinating them into participating in pro-Khalistan activities.

Punjab intelligence officials claim that Nijjar used to run many social media accounts and pages on Facebook and was actively involved in Referendum-2020 activities from Cyprus. Intelligence officials also claim to have strong leads signalling Nijjar’s closeness to Pakistan’s ISI officials handling Khalistan affairs.

Nijjar’s name appeared in the arm supply case registered in Sirhind police station of Fatehgarh Sahib in 2018 with the busting of a pro-Khalistan module after the arrest of an accused, Mohiuddin Siddique alias Mohin Khan, a resident of Delhi.

Khan was arrested from Railway Road in Humayunpur area of Sirhind following intelligence inputs that a person was going to visit Fatehgarh Sahib to supply weapons to someone in Sirhind.

A 38mm pistol and five rounds were recovered from him after which he was booked under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and 25/54/59 of the Arms Act.

As per the FIR, Khan had come in contact with one Harpal Singh, another pro-Khalistan operative and a native of Mughal Majri village in Ropar district. He was arrested by Pune ATS with a pistol and five rounds from Bengaluru. Harpal introduced Khan to Nijjer on Facebook, police said.

Nijjer asked Khan to work for Referendum 2020, claim police. After Khan became a member of ‘Khalistan Zindabad Khalistan’ social media group, he also came into contact with some Pakistan-based agents.

“He came to Fatehgarh Sahib on the direction of Nijjer to supply weapons to contacts to execute terror activities in Punjab. On the instructions of Nijjer, Khan visited Bengaluru three times to meet Harpal. Khan has admitted that he has supplied weapons to some persons in the past on the instructions of Nijjer and has handed it over to some persons near a religious place in Fatehgarh Sahib city,” police said.

Harpal too had admitted that he had received a gun from Khan in Fatehgarh Sahib in October.

The NIA had registered a case in January last year against Harpal Singh under the Arms Act, the Maharashtra Police Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The trio were also involved in posting videos and images in praise of militant Jagtar Singh Hawara, a convict in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, the Operation Blue Star of 1984, besides pro-Khalistani posts related to the proscribed organisation, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), with the sole intention to motivate like-minded Sikh youngsters and others to join the so-called Khalistan movement, the NIA official said.

The agency arrested Nijjar, after he was deported from Cyprus, for allegedly hatching a criminal conspiracy to revive Sikh militancy in India for a separate state of Khalistan, an NIA official said.