LUDHIANA: Four main accused, who are members of a Sikh militant group, of a blast in a cinema hall here in October were arrested and huge cache of arms and ammunition, including RDX, were recovered from them.

The four identified as Gurpreet Singh, Palwinder Singh, Sandeep Singh and Ravinder Singh--all members of Babbar Khalsa International were arrested last night from different places of the city, Punjab's Director General of Police N P S Aulakh said here.

He said 5.1 kg RDX, three detonators, two pistols, nine live cartridges, three batteries and one scooter were recovered from the militants.

They were nabbed in a special operation conducted on information received by the police.

With their arrest, a total of eleven accused have been arrested so far in connection with the case and only one Harminder Singh is absconding, Aulakh said.

The blast inside the Shingar cinema on October 14 left six persons dead and 37 injured.

The DGP said the main motive behind the blast was to revive militancy in the state.

R K Jaiswal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ludhiana, said the four main accused had gone to the cinema hall on a three-wheeler for executing the blast on that day.

Gurpreet Singh and Harminder Singh remained seated in the three-wheeler outside the hall and Sandeep and Palwinder went inside.

Palwinder purchased a ticket entered the hall along with the explosive material taking a seat in the third row.

"Even during the interval, he kept sitting in the hall. After the interval, when the advertisement slides started appearing on the screen, he connected the wires of the explosives to trigger the blast and immediately left the hall. He and others waiting outside fled from the site on the three wheeler," Jaiswal said.

Source : PTI