KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
11-Aug-2019
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh expressed concern over reports of slowdown in activities of discernible showdown by Pakistan to develop Kartarpur corridor. The CM urged Pakistan not to back out of their commitment. The CM also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a special economic package for the development of the border states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir to create better job opportunities.
11-Aug-2019
According to Government officials, Pakistan’s enthusiasm over Kartarpur corridor will depend on the unfolding situation in Kashmir once the restrictions are relaxed. While not commenting on reports that Pakistan had slowed down work on the corridor, they referred to influential voices in its establishment, such as those of former Foreign Secretary Abdul Basit, calling for work to be suspended in light of India’s Jammu and Kashmir moves. The Indian establishment has viewed the Kartarpur Corridor with a tinge of suspicion. There have been recurring concerns after the seizures of explosives and arms in Punjab and Haryana that Pakistan is attempting to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
11-Aug-2019
Special Task Force (STF) arrested head constable Gagandeep, alias Gaggi Khanna and his two accomplices for drug peddling and recovered 785 gram heroin from their possession from an unspecified location. His accomplices have been identified as Amandeep Singh, aliasMauli, and Vikas Kumar, alias Lara.
11-Aug-2019
Two drug peddlers were arrested from Sirsa District in separate incidents. A drug peddler identified as Laksham Singh was arrested from Bappa village in Sirsa District with 100 kilo grams of Chura Post. Separately, another drug peddler identified as Vinod Kumar was arrested with 12 kilo grams of Marijuana from an unspecified location in Sirsa District.
11-Aug-2019
Anti-Narcotic Cell team recovered 20 grams of heroin from two drug peddlers, identified as Mohit Kumar and Jitender Singh in Baba Hanuman Singh Chowk in Sirsa District.
11-Aug-2019
A member of anti-drug campaign committee was shot and wounded by drug peddlers at Kotli Ablu in Muktsar District.
11-Aug-2019
Mansa Police conducted extensive searches in houses of 51 people suspected of drug peddling or liquor smuggling in the District. The Police arrested 13 people and registered 11 cases.
10-Aug-2019
India sent a reminder to Pakistan to hold technical level meetings to finalise key decisions relating to the proposed Kartarpur corridor. India had proposed that technical level meetings should be held in the first week of August. However, the sources said Pakistan is yet to respond to it, prompting the Indian side to send a reminder.
09-Aug-2019
According to a report, Punjab is struggling to wean its youth from substance abuse. An estimated 7.2 lakh people in Punjab, out of its around 3-crore population, need treatment for opioid addiction, according to a study by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Over 42 lakh people in Punjab are involved in substance abuse, including opioid, cannabis, alcohol and sedatives, it found. The figures on substance abuse in Punjab are stark. Punjab Police have arrested 34,443 persons in a total of 28,214 FIRs registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act since April 2017.‘At present, 51% of the total 23,033 prisoners in 24 jails of Punjab are undertrials or convicts in NDPS Act cases.As per official figures, there have been 134 drug overdose deaths since 2017 to date and around 4,000 viscera samples, including those of suspected drug overdose deaths, are pending with Punjab’s only functional chemical examining laboratory in Kharar.
08-Aug-2019
The Government of India has set up a tribunal to adjudicate whether or not there is sufficient reason to impose a ban on pro-Khalistan group SFJ, which was declared as an unlawful organisation last month. The UMHA, while imposing the ban, had said the group’s primary objective is to establish an “independent and sovereign country” in Punjab and it openly espouses the cause of Khalistan and in that process, challenges the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the central government hereby constitutes an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, consisting of Mr Justice D N Patel, Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi, for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause of declaring the SFJ as an unlawful association,” a notification issued by the UMHA said.
08-Aug-2019
An elderly man identified as Amar Singh was shot and wounded when drug peddlers selectively shot at some houses in Shamkhera in Muktsar District. Police has registered a case against eight people. However, no arrest has been made so far.
06-Aug-2019
Punjab Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa accepted in the State Legislative Assembly that drugs and mobile phones were being smuggled into prisons in the State. The Minister informed the assembly that his department was taking this "seriously" and seized 576 cellphones from various jails and suspended 20 jail staffers in six months. Six jail employees of the Patiala jail have been dismissed and Ferozpur jail superintendent has been demoted to the post of deputy jail superintendent, said the Minister.
05-Aug-2019
The recent seizures of over 1,100 kg of heroin in the Indian subcontinent have left the investigating agencies worried about a spurt in the activities of Pakistan-based drug-trafficking syndicates in the region. A case in point is the seizure by the Customs at the Attari Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Amritsar District of Punjab in June of 532 kg of heroin and 52 kg of other drugs. They had been declared rock salt. The alleged kingpin, Tariq Ahmed Lone of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested, along with importer Gurpinder Singh. “The consignment was booked in the name of Global Vision Impex, a front for Pakistan’s ISI, in Lahore,” the official said.
04-Aug-2019
Unprecedented security measures have been made at IB with Pakistan, especially in Pathankot District of Punjab. Punjab’s border zone IGP S P S Parmar said that high alert had been sounded in all border districts of the state following which they had upgraded the security. He added that special officers had been deputed in the border districts who would be monitoring the situation round the clock.
02-Aug-2019
Maheshinder Singh Grewal, a senior spokesperson of the Akali Dal, accused Pakistan of working at the instructions of the ISI of hatching conspiracies to create a rift between the Sikh communities in both countries by floating religion-based narratives. Grewal added that Pakistan’s peace gestures were merely an eyewash and Islamabad had no Sikh-welfare in mind.
02-Aug-2019
In a joint operation, Ludhiana Special Task Force (STF) and Ludhiana Rural Police recovered over 4.5-kilogram heroin, worth crores in the international market, at Mamdot in Ferozepur District of Punjab near the India-Pakistan border.
31-Jul-2019
The former DGP, Punjab, Shashi Kant claimed that Pakistan-backed pro-Khalistani Sikhs are trying to set up their new bases in the UK, especially in Birmingham city. He said, "Now, they are trying to get a good foothold in Birmingham where they have been organising rallies.""There have been demands from India that the Khalistani activists abroad, should not be permitted to hold rallies but the British government has been taking up a different stand citing that as long as they do not indulge in violence, they are unable to take action," he added. He also underlined the key role of Pakistan's spy agency, ISI in fanning anti-India sentiments.
29-Jul-2019
According to sources, many Khalistan terrorists in Punjab prisons have been found to be inciting the other jailbirds against the country and brainwashing them. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) decided that soon all the states will be asked to separate the terrorists from the inmates and create a separate jail for the terrorists who are being punished in different jails across the country.
29-Jul-2019
The NIA special court in Mohali in Punjab sent all the four ISI-backed Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) module members to judicial custody. The accused were initially arrested by Amritsar Police on charges of disturbing the state’s communal harmony, during the Ghalughara (massacre) week.
27-Jul-2019
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in connection with the narcotics terror case in Amritsar in Punjab, visited the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan. A team formed of NIA officials, Customs officers and Punjab Police interrogated the importers at the ICP and asked for the list which contained the list of the goods which are being transported from across the border.
25-Jul-2019
The Government of India has empowered eight states, including Punjab and Delhi, with a “sizeable presence of Sikh population” to take action against Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) if they try “to brainwash Sikh community in favour of Khalistan movement”. In its order, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) noted, “..In exercise of the powers conferred by section 42 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the central government hereby directs that all powers exercisable by it under section 7 and section 8 of the said act shall be exercised also by the state governments of Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, government of National Capital Territory of Delhi and Chandigarh administration”. “Centre doesn't have the wherewithal or jurisdiction to implement the notification in these states. This notification deals with only those states which have a sizeable Sikh population and where the organisations like SFJ can play foul and try to brainwash Sikh community in favor of the Khalistan movement, through various means,” a senior UMHA official said.
23-Jul-2019
Pakistan, which has sabotaged the previous peace initiatives between the two countries, must be hatching anti-Indian conspiracies around the Kartarpur Corridor too, warns the Indian security expert and senior professor at the Jammu University, Dipankar Sengupta. Pakistan has nothing to do with the welfare of any minority community and its diabolic gestures will be exposed in coming times, he said. He further said that Pakistan was taking advantage of the fact that there were more Sikh shrines inside its territory.
22-Jul-2019
The NIA court remanded four Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-backed Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorists, Ravinder Pal Singh, Jagdev Singh, Nishan Singh and Harcharan Singh, till July 29, 2019. NIA took custody of the four, who were part of Amritsar module of BKI, from Punjab Police.
21-Jul-2019
Nainital Police launched an investigation after 52 Haldwani residents (Nainital District of Uttarakhand) were found to be the members of a pro-Khalistan Facebook group. Police said that the Facebook group named “Hindustan Vs Khalistan” is a private group and the posts of the members cannot be viewed by any non-group member. The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Nainital District, Sunil Kumar Meena said that "Nothing can be said conclusively as the matter is presently being looked into."
16-Jul-2019
The Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police recovered about 10 lakh tramadol tablets from Bathinda in Bathinda District.The opioid-based tablets are a schedule H drug under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act and used as a pain-killer. According to the reports, The kingpin, Pradeep Goyal, had supplied about 70 lakh tablets in the past few months.