Harvinder Soni, general secretary of the Punjab unit of the Shiv Sena, was shot at from point-blank range by a 25 yrs old Sikh youth with a .315 bore country-made pistol at around 8.30 am today, while Soni was playing volleyball at a park in Gurdaspur, adjacent to the deputy commissioner’s residence.
The Sikh youth, identified as Kashmir Singh (26) from Galwandi village in Khanna police district, shouted ‘Bole so Nihal, Sat Sri Akal’ after he shot Soni.
He and two others — Inderpal Singh and Gurjit Singh —have been arrested.
Soni was shot in the stomach and rushed to Gurdaspur Civil Hospital where doctors — fearing that his condition may turn critical — immediately decided to shift him to an Amritsar hospital after giving him first aid.
After attacking Soni, Kashmir Singh tried to escape from the spot by scaling a wall near the old Patwarkhana, which lies next to the park. But he was challenged by two of Soni’s security guards.
“He was overpowered almost immediately by the police,” said IG (Border Range) Ishwar Chander.
The police took the suspect to an undisclosed destination where he was being interrogated, top officers said.
An attempt-to-murder case has been registered against Kashmir Singh at the Gurdaspur City police station.
Later, the police arrested Gurdaspur resident Inderpal Singh from Patiala after a statewide alert was sounded by the Punjab police.
Based on inputs provided by Inderpal, the police nabbed Gurjit Singh alias Guggu, a resident of Wadala Granthian falling under the jurisdiction of the Batala police district, late in the evening today. He has been named co-conspirator.
Sources said Inderpal was trying to flee from the state when he was arrested. He was instrumental in planning and executing a recce of the Fish Park area yesterday with main accused Kashmir Singh.
About three years ago, the then SSP had provided the Shiv Sena leader with 10 bodyguards. However when the shooting took place, Soni was accompanied by just two of them.
Officers had claimed that Soni was provided with heavy security following a “threat-perception assessment” conducted by the Gurdaspur police in 2012. The presence of numerous policemen around Soni had irked some Sikh organisations.
After the incident, Sena activists and similar outfits converged in Gurdaspur and a meeting was held. There were reports that they had called a bandh in Gurdaspur Monday. Sources said during preliminary interrogation, Kashmir Singh said the incident was an act of revenge as Soni had allegedly removed the turban of a Sikh during a bandh in Gurdaspur in March 2012 and against the killing of Sikh youth Jaspal Singh the next day amid police firing.
IG Sharma said preliminary interrogation of Kashmir Singh revealed he did not have links with any terrorist outfit.