Khalistan Force, Sikh Youth Federation behind 2018 Amritsar grenade attack: Ahir

A Minister informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a terror group deemed by the Centre, were involved in the November 2018 grenade attack in Punjab's Amritsar district Citing a written document, Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said the Punjab Police has arrested two persons so far.

He said three other persons, residing abroad, have also been accused in the attack that took place on November 18, 2018, in which three people were killed and over 20 injured when two motorcycle-borne men threw a grenade on a religious congregation on the outskirts of Amritsar. "Open dated warrants of arrest have been procured in their cases," Ahir said.

In order to avert terror incidents in the country, the Minister said that there was a close and effective coordination mechanism between intelligence and security agencies at the Centre and the state level. "A Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) has been strengthened and re-organised to enable it to function on a 24x7 basis for real time collation and sharing of intelligence with other intelligence agencies and state governments."

With a view to enhance the capacity of state forces, the Central agencies have been conducting training programmes for the states' forces to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate intelligence from a counter-terrorism perspective and investigate terror cases, Ahir said.

(With inputs from agencies.)