KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
10-Mar-2020
The Nakodar police arrested a person, identified as Kamal Kumar, a resident of Meva village, for peddling drugs from Jalandhar district. Over 60 intoxicant tablets were recovered from him.
09-Mar-2020
A Shiv Sena leader in Punjab, Mahant Kashmir Giri escaped unhurt after two unidentified motorcycle-borne men opened fire at him at his house in Khanna in Ludhiana district in the morning. Giri said that he was raising a voice against pro-Khalistan elements and was getting threat calls from international numbers. Recently, police had provided a gunman to Giri after he complained of receiving threats. However, the policeman deployed for his security was at the temple when shots were fired.
08-Mar-2020
Several families that were affected by militancy in Punjab sought an increase in the pension amount. At present, these families are getting Rs 5,000 per month. An NGO, Rashtriya Suraksha Samiti, which took up the cause of victims, has demanded that the monthly pension should be linked with price index. There has been a 15-fold hike even in the price for LPG cylinder over the years, but no hike in pension was granted, Samiti secretary Sita Ram Sharma said. The victim families maintain that the successive governments had failed to provide justice to the militancy-hit people in Punjab. Their demand of suitable compensation had not been met till now, they said.
08-Mar-2020
As per data from an official of department concerned, 59,318 pilgrims visited the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur, Pakistan, from the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor in November 9 last year to March 8. No considerable surge was witnessed in the footfall of the pilgrims using the corridor, even though India had raised the demand before Pakistan to allow 5,000 pilgrims per day and 10,000 on special occasions. In the opening month, the footfall was 11,192, which increased to 23,383 in December last year. Daily average pilgrims in these months remained 508 and 754, respectively.
08-Mar-2020
The Border Security Force (BSF) recovered 2 kg of heroin near the Mohar Sona border outpost in Fazilka district. According to source, on hearing a noise, the BSF troopers launched a search and recovered two plastic bottles buried in the fields across the barbed wire fencing. The bottles were filled with 2 kg of heroin worth Rs10 crore.
08-Mar-2020
The Border Security Force (BSF) recovered 4 kg of heroin from New Gazniwala border outpost in Abohar in Fazilka district. The BSF troopers signalled the accused to stop and also opened fire, but the suspects managed to escape. During a search operation, four packets of heroin weighing 4 kg with a market value of Rs 20 crore were recovered.
06-Mar-2020
The Barnala police arrested four persons with 40,01,040 intoxicating tablets, capsules and injections worth Rs 4-5 crore in two incidents in Barnala and Mathura. According to Police, interrogation of the main accused, Mittal, who was receiving the drugs at his medical store, had unveiled a chain of supply of psychotropic drugs into Punjab from other states. The accused used to store the contraband in a godown at the Masani bypass in Saraswati Kund in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
06-Mar-2020
Dal Khalsa activists entered into a scuffle with members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) task force over the release of the original version of Nanakshahi calendar from the Akal Takht secretariat in Amritsar. The calendar carried a photograph of the Kartarpur corridor opening ceremony being addressed by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Later, the Takht secretariat in charge intervened and allowed the Dal Khalsa members to release the calendar from the outside platform of the secretariat.
06-Mar-2020
Police arrested three drug smugglers, including a woman, and recovered 21 kg gaanja from their possession in Phagwara in Kapurthala district on March 6 evening. The accused had been identified as Bihari migrants Manoj Kumar, Sanjit Kumar and Lalita Rani.
06-Mar-2020
Around 3.58 gm heroin was recovered from a prisoner in the Sangrur Central Jail in Sangrur district. Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Amrik Singh said that “Accused Gurjit Singh had been facing trial in an NDPS case. On Friday, when he was taken to the jail after conviction, the head warden seized 3.58-gm heroin from him. We have registered another NDPS case against him
05-Mar-2020
The controversial Punjabi singer, Shubhdeep Singh alias Sidhu Moosewala approached Akal Takht voluntarily and tendered an apology. Moosewala was recently embroiled in a controversy over repeatedly using objectionable lyrics in his songs.
05-Mar-2020
The Tarn Taran blast accused, Massa Singh alias Mandeep Singh alleged that officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Central Jail in Amritsar tortured and harassed him in judicial custody. Massa Singh moved an application through his counsel advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur before the special NIA judge Karunesh Kumar in Mohali. Manjhpur said that they had demanded strict action against that the officials concerned.The judge has served a notice to the NIA and the jail authorities to file a reply by March 26.
04-Mar-2020
Rajya Sabha MP (Member of Parliament) Partap Bajwa alleged shoddy investigations into cases involving drug mafia in Punjab. Bajwa, in a letter to the Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, pointed out that no effort had been made by the Centre or Punjab to take forward the investigations on the basis of report on a police-politician-drug mafia nexus, submitted by the STF led by Harpreet Singh Sidhu.
04-Mar-2020
The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) and Anti-Narcotics Cell of Sangrur arrested one man, identified as Harbans Singh along with 150 gm of heroin in Sangrur district. According to police, apart from his arrest, police have also registered a case against his two relatives, including Kaka Singh and Salim.
03-Mar-2020
Police arrested a drug smuggler, identified as Jasvir Singh along with 100 gm of heroin from the outskirts of Rattian village in Moga district.
02-Mar-2020
Another prime suspect in the recent recovery of 450-kg of narcotic substances, including 197-kg heroin, identified as Sahil Sharma surrendered before the court in Amritsar. The court sent him to jail. Earlier, the STF had confiscated around 450-kg of narcotic substances from a house in Akash Vihar in Sultanwind village on January 31 and arrested six persons.
01-Mar-2020
The president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Gobind Singh Longowal sought action against the police officers who are harassing Sikh pilgrims returning back after paying obeisance at Gurdwara Sri Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. Longowal said that it is a very bad routine which has panicked the pilgrims and it can affect the Kartarpur corridor if it is not stopped immediately. He also said that this practice of Punjab government seems an intentional step to bring the people of Punjab under suspicion due to which they are feeling alienated.
29-Feb-2020
A controversy erupted when a school in New Delhi questioned its seventh-grade students about a ‘Sikh militant group’ in one of the examinations. Akali Dal leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa demanded immediate action against the school and termed the incident as intentional brainwashing. He said that the school was brainwashing the students into blaming Sikhs and to term them as terrorists. As per the sources, the question has also upset the Sikh community in Punjab who feel that the question was not required since it is related to a particular religion.
28-Feb-2020
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh said that Punjab Police had questioned some of the pilgrims returning through Kartarpur Corridor in the request of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), in the interest of national security. The CM, defending the police action, said that in fact, had the Gurdaspur police failed to cooperate with IB in the wake of security concerns expressed by the latter, he would have taken strict action against the former. He added that as the police force of a border state, the Punjab Police had acted within permissible limits of functioning in the matter.
28-Feb-2020
Police busted a drug racket and arrested two persons, identified as Kulwinder Singh and Raman Kumar along with 11 kg of heroin on the Sutlej bridge in Phillaur subdivision of Jalandhar district.
27-Feb-2020
A joint team of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Special Task Force (STF) is investigating the possibility of linking the seizure of around 450-kg narcotics from a house in Sultanwind village in Punjab on January 31 with the seizure of around 300 kg of contraband by the ATS from Gujarat last year. The ATS also arrested three more suspects following the interrogation of cloth trader Ankush Kapoor and gym trainers Sukhdip Singh, Sukhwinder Singh and Major Singh, who were arrested along with the contraband in the preliminary stages of the case.
27-Feb-2020
According to report, four Gurdaspur-based pilgrims, who had visited Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan in January this year, were questioned due to their not so convincing pilgrimage. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), in a letter written to the Superintendent of Police (SP), Gurdaspur, has sent details of four pilgrims who visited Kartarpur Sahib in January this year. The letter said all these pilgrims were questioned as the purpose of their visit was "not entirely convincing". Punjab Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa, while reading the IB letter in Punjab Assembly on February 27, said,"The following Indian nationals visited Gurudwara Shri Kartarpur Sahib (GSKS) Pakistan via a corridor. During interrogation, the purpose of their visit was not entirely convincing. Anything of interest may kindly be shared with us.” Those interrogated by the IB are Sukhdeep Singh (who visited Kartarpur Sahib on January 25), Ranjit Singh (visited Kartarpur on January 25), Prabhjit Singh (visited Kartarpur on January 23), and an unnamed person hails from Bhikhriwal in Gurdaspurhad visited Kartarpur on January 23 and is also unemployed and is ‘keen to settle in Canada’.
26-Feb-2020
The Dal Khalsa, through a statement, sought the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for allowing non-state actors to collude and connive with Delhi police to unleash mayhem and terror on anti-CAA protesters. It said, “This is a gross failure of the entire Indian system comprising a hateful government, a biased bureaucracy and an indifferent justice system.”
26-Feb-2020
Police arrested a drug peddler who was out on bail, identified as Hardeep Singh alias Kaka and recovered 110 intoxicant injections and 110 bottles of intoxicant from his custody in Fatehgarh Sahib district.The preliminary investigation revealed that the peddler was earlier booked in NDPS Act and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and has now just come out of jail after five years on bail and again started supplying drugs.
26-Feb-2020
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh, while raising concerns about the security threat to the bordering state from Pakistan in State Assembly, revealed that “In three years what we have achieved through checking their (Pakistan) nefarious designs is that we have busted 32 terrorist modules propped up by them. We have arrested 154 terrorists, confiscated 41 rifles, 136 revolvers and pistols, 35 hand grenades including those used in the Nirankari Bhawan attack in Amritsar, 3.5 kg of RDX, two smart phones and Rs 30 lakhs in fake currency.”Showing pictures of Chinese drones, he said this was pressed by Pakistan into Punjab which was capable of carrying heavy payloads.“These are the drones which we were able to catch and we do not how many such drones are still there with people of Punjab. There are radical Sikhs in Punjab and several of them in countries abroad. Those NRIs go directly to Kartarpur Sahib. We do not know what they do there and who they meet”, he said.