An intelligence report says, ``Bikar Singh Dhillion, an old terrorist, living in Toronto is very close to dreaded militant leader Lakhbir Singh Toor. He is of medium height, in mid-forties and his wife committed suicide some time back.'' While calling the district police authorities to make all efforts to locate and apprehend Dhillion, the report further said that Dhillion offered himself as a human bomb to Khalistani elements based in Canada after his wife's death.

Dhillion recently went to Nankana Sahib, in Pakistan, for birthday celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev, and met Parmjit Singh Panjwar, the head of Panthic Committee based at Lahore, counter-intelligence sources said. The report comes within a fortnight of thedisclosure of Punjab DGP P C Dogra at a press conference, here, that the police had reliable information that Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was facing threats from the Sikh militants. Dogra had also said that many of the terrorists, after serving their sentences in jails, were taking steps to revive militancy in the state.

A senior police offical told The Indian Express that all necessary precautionary measures have been taken to safeguard the threatened persons. He added that the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan had given orders to revive the militancy in Punjab.

But despite the optimism echoed by the police in curbing the revival of militancy in the state, the local people are unable to do so for they are still unable to erase the bitter memories of those turbulent times. At times to them the police machinery too seemed like the other side of a villainish coin what with unnecessary torture and other crude methods adopted to extract the so-called confessions. Then there was theraj of encounters during the reign of Director General of Police Julio Rebeiro which the Punjab police took to with relish, not that they could be blamed as the militants were equally ruthless in killing the law-enforcers.

Meanwhile, political circles are reacting with concern to the news of the human bomb circulating in their state. No lives are secure, say some of them while others profess confidence in the ability of their security forces.