Because he was travelling with a friend, which risked compromising the plan, officials in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said, pakistani terrorist-gangster Shahzad Bhatti had recruited a Ghaziabad-based man online to transport an explosives laden car from Ferozpur to Ambala in January but later told him to pull out.
Officials earlier said investigations revealed the police station was targeted following reconnaissance of potential targets in Punjab and Haryana. Multiple agencies of the Indian government and states’ police have launched a crackdown on his network across the country in the past couple of months. NIA’s larger probe against Bhatti’s attacks on police stations and police officers in Punjab in the last couple of years revealed that he has established operational modules in India and recruited local operatives to arrange logistics and procure explosives for such attacks.
The Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA) claimed responsibility for the blast on Instagram, and investigations traced the account’s IP address to Pakistan. NIA took over the case and filed a charge sheet against eight people, including Bhatti and Satyam, in July. The details surfaced as the anti-terrorism agency conducted its probe into a low-intensity improvised explosive device (IED) blast in a Maruti 800 outside Ambala’s Baldev Nagar police station on January 10. Bhatti, aged around 45, is a resident of Lahore who is currently believed to be operating from Brazil, under the direct command of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
It later said a Nokia phone made in Pakistan was used to trigger the blast. In a statement issued in July, the agency said “some of the accused had parked the car, packed with gas cylinders and explosives substances, in the police station premises and even videographed the scene for dissemination and publicity”.
