KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
07-Apr-2022
According to a report by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the recovery of various drugs, including opium and heroin, in India in 2020, the first year of Covid, was the highest since 2016. Data compiled by the federal anti-narcotics agency states that the seizure of opium went up from 4,488 kg in 2019 to 5,212 kg in 2020. Similarly, the seizure of heroin (extracted from opium) shot up from 3,231 kg in 2019 to 3,838 kg in 2020, ganja (cannabis) from 3,42,045 kg to 5,81,644 kg, ephedrine (a stimulant drug) from 686 kg to 841 kg, and hashish (drug extracted from cannabis) from 3,572 kg to 6,643 kg, the recently published NCB report for the year 2020 said.
07-Apr-2022
Chief Minister (M) Bhagwant Mann told the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) the state was willing to take the responsibility of installing the state-of-the-art broadcast/communication technologies at Darbar Sahib in Amritsar to broadcast ‘Gurbani’. The government offered to bear the entire cost of setting up the infrastructure. However, rejecting the offer, the SGPC asked the CM to concentrate on “fulfilling own responsibilities, instead of indulging in tasks pertaining to religion”.
06-Apr-2022
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will send a 'jatha' (group) of Sikh pilgrims on April 12 to participate in the congregations to be held at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Pakistan on the occasion of Baisakhi. The group will return to India on April 21. Earlier, the 'jatha' was scheduled to visit gurdwaras in Pakistan from April 11 to April 20, but the schedule was changed.
06-Apr-2022
Various Sikh organisations blocked the Bathinda-Amritsar national highway in Faridkot, seeking justice in the 2015 desecration cases and subsequent police firing incidents. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Faridkot MLA Gurdit Singh Sekhon and former Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu also joined the protesters to express solidarity.
06-Apr-2022
Punjab police registered a case against Pakistan-based chief of the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) Lakhbir Singh Rode for allegedly smuggling arms and ammunition in the border areas of Amritsar district by using drones in the recent days to “attempt a big terror activity” in the state. State special operation cell (SSOC) wing of the Punjab police registered the case against Rode, who is also the chief of International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), on April 6, but the first information report (FIR) was available on April 10. The case has been registered under Sections 25 of the Arms Act, Sections 3, 4, 5 of the Explosive Substance (Amendment) Act, Sections 120, 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Sections 13, 18, 18-A, 18-B and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in Amritsar on the complaint of SSOC’s Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Harvinder Pal Singh. According to the FIR, the DSP received a tip-off that Rode, who is wanted in various criminal cases in Punjab, has been active in various anti-national activities and in contact with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and other separatist organisations. “With the help of the ISI and other separatist organisations, Rode has been sending contrabands of arms and ammunition in Punjab to attempt a big terror activity. He has been working, with the help of criminals and gangsters, to destabilise the peaceful atmosphere by targeting social and religious leaders,” it said.
05-Apr-2022
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann directed police chief V K Bhawra to set up a task force to wipe out gangster networks across the state. The Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) will be headed by a police officer of Additional Director-General rank. According to an official release, the CM assured the police force of all requisite manpower, latest equipment and information technology, besides adequate funds "to break the unholy nexus which has already spread its wings in the drug trade and Kabaddi world". Mann said the AGTF would have integrated collection of intelligence, manning and execution of operations, registrations of FIRs, investigation and prosecution on the lines of similar specialized units in the country.
05-Apr-2022
The District and Sessions Court has sentenced a drug peddler to 10 years of imprisonment while his associate got one-year jail in a case of possessing 26 intoxicating pills in Moga district.
04-Apr-2022
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued orders for blocking 22 news channels on YouTube, three Twitter accounts, one Facebook account and one news website. The order alleged that the YouTube channels, with a cumulative viewership of over 260 crore, were being used to spread fake news and disinformation on India’s national security, foreign relations and public order. Of the total 22 YouTube channels, 18 are Indian and four are from Pakistan. “This is the first time action has been taken on the Indian YouTube based news publishers since the notification of the IT Rules, 2021, in February last year,” the order stated.
04-Apr-2022
The Border Security Force (BSF) chased and fired at a group of smugglers and recovered over 2 kg of contraband, suspected to be heroin, from them, during their search operation in Ferozepur.
04-Apr-2022
Former Union Minister and currently MP of Bathinda, Harsimrat Kaur Badal demanded the release of all Sikh prisoners incarcerated across Indian jails beyond the completion of jail terms. Harsimrat Kaur, raising issue in Parliament, said following the 1984 “attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib by the Congress Government, several Sikhs were swayed and took the law in their own hands.” She said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had been seeking the release of the detainees after the completion of their sentences but many continued to be in prisons even after 25 years.
04-Apr-2022
The President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami expressed grave concern over the racially motivated attacks on Sikhs in the United States (US) and called on the Gurdwara Committees and Sikh leaders to speak out against the practice.
04-Apr-2022
A local court in Chandigarh sentenced two Ferozepur residents to 10 years in jail for possessing heroin. The duo, Saraj alias Babu (30) and Arjun alias Ajju (22), hailing from Khalchia Qadeen village, Ferozepur in Punjab, were caught with 304 gm heroin in Chandigarh in 2017.
03-Apr-2022
Police arrested 10 drug peddlers in separate cases in Abohar in Fazilka district. In the first case, 89 kg of poppy husk was seized from truck driver Budh Ram and helper Vikas. Brij Bhushan was arrested with 9.8 kg ganja, 1.5 kg opium was seized from Manish and Sanjay, 250 gm opium from Rakesh, 140 gm opium from Sunil and 100 gm opium was seized from Suresh and Amar. Ajay was held with 200 pills.
02-Apr-2022
Sikh scholars at the Kendri Singh Sabha urged the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to take up the job of reproducing standardized copies of Guru Granth Sahib in its own hands and debarred all printing and publishing companies from doing so and stop commercialization of Gurbani through PTC channel.
01-Apr-2022
The Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) issued a notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over the regular bail petition filed by an accused, Dharminder Singh Dhanna, for his alleged involvement in a narco-terror case. The petitioner has been accused in a case registered by the NIA in New Delhi in 2020, under sections 13 and 17 of the UAPA Act, NDPS Act. According to NIA, Dharminder used to receive heroin, which was smuggled from Pakistan, from Jajbir Singh and would then sell it to local traffickers.
01-Apr-2022
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami said that the incident of allegedly stopping an Amritdhari Sikh youth from entering a metro station in Delhi with his kirpan is in violation of the Constitution of the country. Seeking strict action into the matter during a press conference, he added that there are frequent incidents of hurting the religious sentiments of Sikhs but unfortunately the governments are not taking exemplary action against the accused.
01-Apr-2022
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann claimed in the Assembly that 'Chitta' is made in Punjab itself and those responsible for this will be busted soon. According to data from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 836 out of one lakh people in Punjab are drug addicts. This figure is much higher than the national average of 250 addicts per one lakh people. The death toll due to drugs or its disease in the state has been recorded at 112 per month, while 1344 youth die every year due to this.
02-Mar-2022
Police arrested five drug peddlers and seized 55-kg poppy husk and 600 intoxicating pills from them in Abohar in Fazilka district.
01-Mar-2022
The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the states of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Union Territory of Chandigarh, to file status reports on the disposal of case properties in drug matters under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The direction came after Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Sandeep Moudgil issued notice to Haryana Advocate-General and UT Senior Standing Counsel for May third week. The case revolves around the disposal of contraband in a timely manner as per the directions already issued by the Supreme Court (SC)/ Government of India.
01-Mar-2022
The Crime Investigation Agency arrested a person, identified as Ravinder Singh (23) and recovered 1.57 kg heroin worth Rs 7.87 crore from his possession in Ferozepur district. Two of his accomplices, Shiva and Anmol, were on the run.
01-Mar-2022
A study conducted by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI), Chandigarh, revealed that every seventh person in Punjab is consuming one or the other kind of drug, which makes up 15.4% of the population in Punjab. The study was done by the Department of community medicine of PGI.
28-Feb-2022
To mark the 1921 Nankana Sahib massacre, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) organised a ‘gurmat samagam’ at Shaheed Sikh Missionary College in Amritsar.
28-Feb-2022
According to reports, Ulsoor Gurdwara in Karnataka has written to the Karnataka government to issue a government order (GO) to protect the five Kakkar’s (articles of faith) and the constitutional rights of the Sikh minority community of Karnataka.
26-Feb-2022
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) termed the alleged denial of admission to a six-year-old Sikh boy by a private school in Karnataka’s Mangaluru as an attack on religious freedom of the community. SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami has also reportedly written to the Karnataka Chief Minister (CM), seeking an appointment to discuss the issue.
26-Feb-2022
The Focal Point police arrested a factory worker, identified as Sone Lal Mahato and recovered 1.05-kg opium from him in Gobindgarh village in Ludhiana district. Sone Lal Mahato, who hails from Bihar, had procured the drug from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.