Time Line-2001

India 02-Apr-2001

Police arrested four BKI terrorists along with three kilograms of RDX and some arms and ammunition from Harchowal village in the Batala District.

India 04-Apr-2001

Punjab Police sources said, a Kashmiri terrorist arrested earlier in Gurdaspur, on April 1, has confessed to links with a police officer and a local politician. The arrested terrorist, a former student of Jammu University, also disclosed that a hotel room in the Gurdaspur used as a control room by Pakistan’s ISI. As reported earlier, four Kashmiri terrorists associated with the BKI were arrested from Harchuwala in Gurdaspur, where they were planning an attack during the Ramnavami, a Hindu religious event, celebrations of April 2 in Batala town.

India 04-Apr-2001

Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal said that, "No one has approached me concerning the surrender of Wassan Singh Zaffarwal. I am not aware of anything in this connection. I have just read in the newspapers that Zaffarwal wanted to surrender". It was reported that Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, Chief of the KCF (Zaffarwal), who was staying in Switzerland until recently, has come to India intending to surrender before the Punjab police.

India 05-Apr-2001

Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal, addressing a press conference, in Chandigarh, said that the government was ready to open its door to militants willing to surrender. The Chief Minister stated this in reply to a question on reports in the press regarding the surrender proposals of the Chief of the KCF, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, who is believed to have arrived from Switzerland.

India 09-Apr-2001

The president of the Akali Dal (Amritsar), Simranjit Singh Mann, in Jalandhar, alleged that senior Punjab political leaders belonging to different parties had well-established links with terrorists. He also criticized the KCF chief, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal's reported move to surrender.

India 11-Apr-2001

Majitha Police arrested chief of the KCF, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal.

India 12-Apr-2001

The KCF chief, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal was remanded to police custody till April 20, by Judicial Magistrate in Amritsar. A senior police official claimed that Zaffarwal's arrest was a big achievement of the police. Zaffarwal had managed to enter Punjab on a fake passport in the name of Charanjit Singh and had arrived at the local Rajasansi Airport on March 9.

India 13-Apr-2001

According to official sources, the Punjab government decided to grant special remission of sentences to prisoners convicted under the TADA of 1987. This one-time measure has been announced by the Governor, on the occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the coronation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

India 14-Apr-2001

A KCF terrorist, Rachpal Singh Lalli surrendered in Jagraon. His surrender came close on the heels of the arrest of KCF chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal. Rachpal Singh had fled to Philippines after being declared a proclaimed offender in 1991.

India 15-Apr-2001

According to official sources, the interrogation of the arrested KCF chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal has established that many more terrorists living abroad are prepared to return home if given a chance. He reportedly said the government should evolve a concrete policy to help militants return to the mainstream as they were disillusioned with the goal of Khalistan. In a dramatic volte-face, Zaffarwal said Khalistan was no more his goal, and added, Punjab, as a part of India, “is our homeland".

India 16-Apr-2001

Intelligence sources said that the arrested KCF chief Zaffarwal faces a serious threat to his life from Pakistan's ISI. According to reports, the ISI was perturbed over his return that could virtually set a trend for others who had escaped abroad with its assistance. This could prove a psychological setback to the ISI's efforts to foment trouble in Punjab. The ISI is known to have spent a considerable amount of money and effort in propping some of these terrorist outfits and Zaffarwal's return is seen as a sort of breach of trust. Zaffarwal had enjoyed the hospitality of the ISI in Pakistan for several years before he fled to Switzerland. Moreover, Zaffarwal might throw light on the ISI network in Punjab.

India 17-Apr-2001

Union Minister of State for Home, Vidyasagar Rao, informed the Lok Sabha that Pakistan's security personnel had destroyed their end of a secret 135-yard underground tunnel, detected on March 1, 2001, across the India-Pakistan border in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.

India 19-Apr-2001

According to official sources, a huge cache of arms, including two carbines, a Thomson machine gun, a stun gun, 12 grenades, 11 magazines, and 2,287 cartridges, were recovered from the Sirhind canal siphon near Chamkaur Sahib in Ropar district. According to Police sources, (unidentified) terrorists seemed to have thrown the weapons into the canal to evade the police.

United Kingdom 19-Apr-2001

The BKI has dissolved its UK wing following the ban imposed by the British Government on 21 different terrorist organizations, including the ISYF. It was dissolved by Avtar Singh Sanghera, vice-president, BKI. He, however, said the outfit had submitted a memorandum to Jack Straw, British Home Secretary, for lifting the ban. He alleged the ban was imposed at the behest of the Indian Government as both the organizations had wings all over the world.

India 20-Apr-2001

The Punjab government is reportedly apprehensive about a possible resurgence of terrorist violence by a section of terrorists, who did not like the way the KCF chief returned to India and offered himself for arrest. Security officials also speculate that the ISI, to aid these disgruntled terrorists, may involve non-Sikhs in engineering violent strikes.

India 20-Apr-2001

The arrested chief KCF, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, has reportedly said that during his exile in Pakistan, he and scores of other Punjab terrorists were puppets in the hands of Pakistan's ISI. Speaking to newsmen at Baba Bakala in Amritsar, he revealed that they were under the complete control of Pakistani bosses who would tell them to write letters and issue directions to terrorists operating in the field (Indian Punjab). He added that their operations were mainly funded through sources in Europe and North America which were routed through traders based in Lahore and Sialkot, Pakistan.

India 21-Apr-2001

AISSF President, Manjit Singh Bhoma demanded that Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should announce a general amnesty for all those terrorists who had migrated to western countries during the decade-long terrorism in the State. He said these terrorists should be allotted Siromani Akali Dal (SAD) (Badal) tickets in the ensuing State Legislative Assembly elections so that they could raise their genuine demands in the State Assembly in a democratic way, instead of taking up the gun culture.

India 25-Apr-2001

Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recovered 17.59kg of heroin in Pathankot and arrested two persons in this connection.

United States 30-Apr-2001

According to media reports, annoyed over the arrest of Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, chief of the KCF, the foreign-based Sikh terrorist outfits have resolved to observe the 15th anniversary of the declaration of ‘Khalistan’ at Stockton, California (US). The declaration of Khalistan "was made at Akal Takht by the Panthic Committee" on April 29, 1986, to which Zaffarwal was one of the five signatories.