KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
20-Jul-2010
The Director-General of Police in Punjab, P.S. Gill, said that Pakistan's ISI is helping terrorists to penetrate East Punjab. He claimed militants were receiving funds to the tune of Lakhs (100000) from Pakistan, and, had undergone training in the use of RDX, manufacturing of bombs, hand grenades, all kinds of rifles and pistols in Pakistan.
18-Jul-2010
Punjab Government recommends the deletion of names of 46 former Khalistani militants from the Union Government’s list of 'blacklisted' Sikh radicals. The existing blacklist — meant for travel ban and denial of visa — comprises names of 169 Sikhs who were directly or indirectly associated with various pro-Khalistan militant outfits. Names of 46 of them, however, have been cleared by a Punjab Government committee for deletion from the central list.
18-Jul-2010
Punjab Police said that it had arrested four militants of the BKI and recovered weapons and explosives from them. The four include BKI commander Harmohinder Singh, who was the mastermind in the 2007 Ludhiana cinema blast. The other three were his accomplices and they were staying in rented accommodation here for the past few weeks. Police have recovered 3.1 kilograms of RDX, an AK-47 and a revolver from them.
30-Jun-2010
A BKI militant, identified as Sher Singh was arrested from Amritsar District and one AK 47 rifle, three magazines, and 72 live cartridges were recovered from his possession. Singh had earlier spent around six years in jail for his involvement in various cases of bomb blasts in Delhi, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Kaithal (Haryana) and Chandigarh, and a jailbreak in Burail.
22-Jun-2010
The State Special Operation Cell of Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police with the interrogation of arrested BKI militant Nishan Singh recovered one AK-47 assault rifle, 110 cartridges, one revolver 32 bore and three automatic Chinese pistols. Following Singh’s arrest, an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team had visited his village, Daleke, in the Tarn Taran District and recovered a huge cache of imported arms hidden in the farms by Singh. The weapons were sent from Pakistan.
18-Jun-2010
The Punjab Police arrested a BKI militant from Bhagowal village near Batala area in Gurdaspur District. He was identified as Jagtar Singh, a resident of Bhagowal village under Qilla Lal Singh Police Station. Jagtar Singh was sent to Joint Interrogation Centre (JIC) Amritsar for investigations, Batala Police sources said
16-Jun-2010
A suspected militant of the BKI, identified as Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha, was arrested along with 1.4 kilograms RDX, arms and ammunition, from the border of Khalkian and Rattangarh villages in Amritsar District.
14-Jun-2010
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that arrests show forces are alert even as the arrest of two more suspected terrorists belonging to the dreaded BKI on June 12 in Batala has caused concerns regarding the revival of militancy in the State and ruled out any “threat to peace in Punjab”. He said the arrests were a testimony to the fact that Security Forces were alert and they would thwart any attempt to disturb law and order
14-Jun-2010
Five suspected militants of the BKI have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the Dera Bassi court. Earlier, these militants were in Police custody. According to information, militants sent to judicial remand include Balbeer Singh, alias Bhootna, Nirmal Singh, alias Nimma, Avtar Singh, Daljit, and Deepak. The accused had reportedly been involved in terrorist activities and arms and ammunition were also seized from their possession.
13-Jun-2010
Bakhshish Singh, a KLF militant who was arrested on May 30 said when freed he would again make an attempt to kill controversial Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who had emulated Guru Gobind Singh, leading to clashes between Sikhs and Dera followers two years ago. He told the media gathered on the local court premises that he had done nothing wrong by targeting the Dera head and would not mind making another attempt on his life.
12-Jun-2010
The Police arrested two suspected BKI militants, identified as Balwinder Singh alias Binda and Manjinder Singh alias Mannaand recovered a pistol and 10 live cartridges from their possession, from a fuel pump at Khanowal village under Kila Lal Singh Police Station in Gurdaspur District. The two arrested suspects had hidden arms and ammunition in a water cooler they were carrying, Police said.
10-Jun-2010
Five persons have been arrested from a village in Amritsar and six kilograms of RDX as well as 20 detonators, time-devices, and heroin recovered from them, Police said.
29-May-2010
Punjab Police’s Special Operation Cell arrested a KLF terrorist, Bakshish Singh Baba, who reportedly masterminded a bomb attack on the convoy of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief in Karnal in February 2008, from Amritsar recently. Baba, carrying a reward of INR 500000 on his head, was reportedly involved in more than 25 cases of terror-related activities and destruction of public property in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi.
29-May-2010
An ISI agent, identified as Irfan Ulla was arrested, with maps of vital defense installations, near the Indian Air Force (IAF) station at Mullanpur in Mohali District. The Police recovered a pistol with 20 live cartridges, maps, pictures and code numbers of IAF stations and airports in different parts of the country from him. Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told journalists that Ulla was an ISI agent and close aide of dreaded terrorists Ranjit Singh alias Neeta, head of the KZF, and his associate Gurmeet Singh Bagga, who is based in Germany.
25-May-2010
Two Pakistani nationals were arrested by the BSF while trying to infiltrate into the Indian side at Dera Baba Nanak sector in Gurdaspur District of Punjab, officials said. The duo, which was in their 20s, was also carrying PKR 6,000 in, they said.
16-May-2010
Unidentified assailants shot dead the head of Maidas Nirmali Dera (sect) at village Baddon in Hoshiarpur District, Police said. "After the morning prayer inside the dera hall, Sant Pardhan Singh went out to open the main gate. Some three-four persons were already standing outside the gate and they immediately fired at him," said Amrik Singh, a resident of Baddon village. "Police have found four empty shells of AK 47 bullets. We cannot ignore the role of personal enmity behind this incident," said Rajesh Aggarwal, senior superintendent of police, Hoshiarpur.
08-May-2010
A car with two kilograms of explosives was found abandoned near a busy Railway Station in Amritsar, Police said. Although so far, no particular terrorist outfit has taken the responsibility, Police believe this incident was part of the attempt of BKI and Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) elements to revive terrorism in Punjab.
05-May-2010
Punjab DGP Paramjit Singh Gill said that Pakistan’s ISI keeps backing anti-national elements to disturb peace in Punjab but they were vigilant enough to thwart any challenge to the law and order situation in the State. He said that there were reports that ISI keeps instigating Khalistani as well as Kashmiri terrorists to jointly strike at sensitive places.
19-Apr-2010
A link between the KZF and LeT has once again surfaced with the infiltration of two militants, including a Pakistani and a local of Doda in Jammu and Kashmir, from Bamial sector of Gurdaspur District in Punjab.
18-Apr-2010
A group of militants is reported to have intruded into the Indian Territory, taking probably for the first time Gurdaspur (Punjab) route, on the night of April 18. However, two of them were trapped by Police and Security Force (SF) personnel at Chabe Chak Nursery along Ujh River under the jurisdiction of Rajbagh Police Station in the Kathua District in the evening of April 19. While only two militants have been spotted so far, Police didn’t rule out the possibility of some more militants having succeeded in infiltrating into this side but maintained that at no other place movement of the intruders has been observed. According to sources, the group of militants included some activists of the Dashmesh Regiment of the KZF besides Pakistani militants. While the KZF militants were reported to have left for Punjab, the Pakistani militants intruded into Kathua District.
17-Apr-2010
A suspected BKI militant, identified as Avtar Singh, was arrested by Zirakpur Police from Materi village in Ambala on April 17. He was produced in the Derabassi court on April 18 from where he was sent in Police remand till April 22. He is said to be the brother of another BKI cadre Purshotam Singh, who is living in France. According to Police sources, Purshotam was regularly sending money to BKI cadres in India to sustain their criminal activities.
30-Mar-2010
A special court sentenced BKI militant Paramjit Singh Bheora to life imprisonment, after convicting him of involvement in the 1995 assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. A fine of INR 65000 was also slapped on Bheora, who was on March 29 convicted of criminal conspiracy for his involvement in the assassination of Beant Singh by a suicide bomber, Dilawar Singh, August 31, 1995, at the high-security Punjab Civil Secretariat complex in Chandigarh. Jagtar Singh Hawara, an accomplice of Bheora, was earlier sentenced to death in 2007 in the same case
30-Mar-2010
A hardcore militant arrested by the Punjab Police was working towards the revival of terror outfit KLF and planning to carry out a series of explosions in the State at the behest of Pakistan's ISI, a senior Police official said. Amritsar City Police Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said, “He was associated with the defunct KLF and was working towards its revival by trying to cause series of explosions in the State at the instance of Pakistan's ISI.” “Baba at a very young age joined the BTFK (Sangha Group) in the early 1990s. Subsequently, after the death of BTFK area commander Sukh Ram Singh Kulara, he joined KCF headed by Jarnail Singh Shatrana,” the Commissioner said.
29-Mar-2010
A BKI militant, identified as Piara Singh, a resident of Gattikatar village in Ferozepur, was arrested with 3.5 kilograms of RDX, which he had reportedly smuggled from Pakistan for supplying to BKI militants in Punjab. With the arrest of the explosive’s supplier to BKI, the Mohali District Police claimed to have foiled another bid of Pakistan’s ISI-backed BKI to revive militancy in Punjab, Delhi and across the country.
25-Mar-2010
Three BKI militants, Waryam Singh alias Jasbir Singh alias Giani of Mohali District, Kulwant Singh of Mann Kheri District and Bhupinder Singhof Ropar District, were arrested at Rajpura of Patiala District. SSP R. S. Khatra said that they confessed that they were in constant touch with Italy-based BKI militant Jasvir Singh Jassi, who gave them the weapons to eliminate Baba Bhaniarwala to create unrest in the State. They were paid heavily by Jassi and were asked to step up militant activity in the State, Khatra said.