CHANDIGARH, SEPT 6: Punjab police have unravelled a sinister game of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to virtually resorting to ``chemical warfare'' by planning selective targeted mass killings with lethal cyanide and a very strong anesthesia `flouthene' seized from arrested terrorists, the Punjab police chief has said.Director General of Police P C Dogra said that a total two kgs of German cyanide and two bottles of flouthene was seized from Pakistan-based Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) militants arrested in the past ten months in the State.
Dogra said he did not want to cause any scare among the people but intentions of ISI operatives was to either poison water works or any other water body or they had plans to target a military or para-military areas anywhere in the country.
``One really shudders while making out ISI designs which amounted to chemical warfare,'' Dogra said adding that such a sinister game of ISI must be taken seriously by responsible people from both thesides.
Fluothene was so strong a drug that a single drop of it made a dog to faint immediately, Dogra said adding that the terrorists carrying cyanide and fluothene did not exactly know its ``end-users'' in India.
``We are not able to get hold of those men who were to execute ISI designs finally,'' Dogra said.
He said the terrorists were nabbed before its end-users could plan and execute it.
During the heydays of terrorism in Punjab, one kg seizure of cyanide from terrorists was quite understandable as cyanide capsules were popular with militants trying to escape from the clutches of security forces, but two kgs of cyanide seized now really baffled us initially, the Punjab police chief said.
One kg of cyanide was recovered from Satnam Singh Jhajion, Baj Singh and Gurlal Singh of BKI on October 24 last year and one kg of cyanide from Amarjit Singh Sohal and two other BKI activists from Batala on July 10 this year. Two bottles of fluothene were seized from Jaswant Singh Sidhupur, Balwinder Singh andtwo more from BKI militants in June this year, he said.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Government has suspended Moga senior Superintendent of Police Bhushan Kumar Garg and Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rural) Surinder Singh Sandhu for ``showing cowardice, failure of leadership, and treachery to police force.''
DGP Dogra said the two officers had been suspended as they failed to save the life of head constable Tarsem Singh who was recently killed by a mob in the suburban locality of Basti Bohna of Moga.
He said the local police of the area was informed when the head constable was being severely beaten up by the mob but it failed to react to the situation.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.