Chandigarh, March 18
Taking serious note of the perceptible increase in drone movement from across the border since the farmers’ protests started gathering heat in October 2020, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday declared that “as long as I am here, no Khalistani or Pakistani or any other terrorist activity will be allowed to disturb the peace of the state.”
Terming the national security threat perception real, the Chief Minister said he had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah amid the farmers’ agitation to discuss this grave issue and to ask him why central forces could not be provided adequate equipment to locate and shoot down the drones.
Currently, the Khalistani cells in Punjab were dormant but they were being fed with weapons via the drones to activate them to create trouble, said Captain Amarinder, vowing to break the back of this movement.
Any breach of the Punjab border was a breach of national security, said Captain Amarinder while interacting with media on the completion of four years of his government. While a large number of weapons had been seized near the borders, what was the cause of worry was those which had not been caught, he said, adding “I am worried about where those are.”
Giving details of the arrests and seizures since his government took over in March 2017, the Chief Minister said as many as 333 modules of terrorists and gangsters had been busted while 3472 militants/gangsters had been arrested. Ten drones had been picked up, in addition to 2000-odd weapons (including rifles, revolvers, pistols etc), hand grenades, RDX and other explosives, walkie talkies and satellite phones. As many as 11000 rounds of ammunition had also been seized, he said. These are not small numbers for a small state like Punjab, he added.
