KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
Punjab Police said gangster Gopi Nawanshahria, involved in the murder of former Babbar Khalsa International militant, Rattandeep Singh, fled to the United States on a fake passport in May and is believed to be hiding in California. The revelations came following the arrest of a member of BKI, Simranjeet Bablu, early this week. Bablu was part of a module operated by Pakistan-based terrorist Harwinder Rinda and US-based Nawanshahria, they added.
Rinda has been named by NIA in several cases and identified as among the key conspirators involved in hatching terror conspiracies as well as smuggling of arms and ammunition into Punjab.
A former BKI militant, Singh was murdered on April 3, 2024, in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab, by two bike-borne unidentified men. After cops reached the crime scene, they reportedly found a poster in which Gopi Nawanshahria claimed responsibility for the murder. The gangster had also taken to social media soon after the shooting and reportedly claimed responsibility for the killing.
The initial probe by the police revealed that Simranjit was working on the directions of Rinda and Nawanshehria, who tasked him and another assailant, Jaspreet Singh, alias Jassi Kulam, to carry out the targeted killing to create panic in society. The arrested accused are hardcore criminals and face several cases pertaining to murder, attempt to murder and the Arms Act. They were involved in the assassination of an ASI in Amritsar.
A one-time hardcore militant, the slain Rattandeep was the prime suspect in the bomb blast in the parking area of the old passport office in Sector 34, Chandigarh, on June 30, 1999, in which four people were injured. He owned the scooter used for carrying the bomb. The BKI militant was behind the blast on the railway bridge in Panipat the same year and had planted an improvised explosive device on the Shahbad-Markanda bridge in 1998. He was an accused in the arms recoveries in Jind district in 1996 and 2000, according to Punjab Police.