RDX haul in Delhi, 2 held

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, OCT. 15. A record 30 kg of lethal RDX and sophisticated timer devices were seized from two terrorists in a swift operation carried out jointly by detectives of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Delhi police in the Capital on Saturday night.

Apparently, the consignment of RDX, two AK-56 rifles, 20 pistols, detonators, electronic timers and ammunition, which originated from across the border, was meant for a Punjab militant organisation - Babbar Khalsa - for reviving militancy in the Northern State.

Two persons, Pyare Lal and Baldev Raj - both hailing from Amritsar - were arrested by the CBI while they were taking delivery of the consignment near a restaurant at Libaspur in North-West Delhi. They have been booked under provisions of the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

Describing the arrest as a ``very significant catch'', the CBI Special Director, Mr. P.C. Sharma, told presspersons here today that prima facie it appeared that the consignment had entered the country from somewhere in the western sector and was meant for the Babbar Khalsa outfit in Punjab. He did not rule out the possibility of the consignment being sent in for carrying out explosions either in the Capital or in other parts of Northern India. ``There is a lot of pressure from across the border to revive Sikh militancy in Punjab and for this purpose narcotics, arms, ammunition and explosives are being sent in. For such consignments, Pakistan is looking for soft spots and carriers in Northern India. This is a serious development and it shows Pakistan's desperation to revive militancy in Punjab and create disturbances elsewhere in India,'' Mr. Sharma said.

The lethal potential of RDX can be gauged from the fact that in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts only a couple of kg of the explosive were used in different spots with deadly effect, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds others.

He said the CBI had been developing information about the consignment of explosives over the past three months but was rather surprised to find that narcotics, as expected, were not sent along with it. For the CBI, it was the third biggest seizure of ammunition and explosives this year. Earlier, in Ahmedabad the agency had seized 25 revolvers and 6 kg of fine grade heroin and recovered 25 kg of heroin from Central Delhi. In the international market, one kg of heroin is valued at Rs. 1 crore.

Apart from RDX and pistols, the seizure at Libaspur included six magazines of AK-56 rifles, 163 live cartridges, two ammunition bandoleers for AK-56 ammunition with Chinese markings, 40 pistol magazines, 717 live cartridges, seven packets of time pencils, six detonators, nine electronic detonators, six ABCD programmable time devices, cordex fuse wire, and two rolls of match fuse.

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