Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

NIA arrests key Khalistani operative from Bihar in 2022 terror conspiracy case

2025-05-12

[TimesOfIndia] In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested a key Khalistani operative in connection with the 2022 Khalistani terror conspiracy case.

The Khalistani operative, Kashmir Singh Galwaddi from Punjab
...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots...ll
's Ludhiana, is associated with foreign-based Babbar Khalsa terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, news agency PTI quoted NIA officials as saying.

Galwaddi was arrested from Motihari, Bihar, in coordination with the local police. As per NIA, he is a "hardened criminal" and is among six people who had beat feet from a jail in Punjab's Nabha in 2016.

The anti-terror agency further said that since breaking out of the Nabha jail, Kashmir Singh had been "actively associated" with designated Khalistani terrorists, including Rinda. The former was a proclaimed offender in the NIA case for his role relating to involvement in conspiracy, providing shelter, logistics support and terror funds to aides of the Khalistani terrorists.

These aides had escaped to Nepal after carrying out various terror activities in India, including the rocket-propelled grenade attack at the Punjab Police Intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May 2022.

An NIA Special Court in Delhi had declared Kashmir Singh a proclaimed offender in the 2022 terror conspiracy case and issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him over the past two years.

A cash reward of Rs 10 lakh was also announced by the NIA for information leading to his arrest.

2022 KHALISTAN TERROR CONSPIRACY CASE
In August 2022, the NIA had registered the terror conspiracy case suo moto to probe the terrorist activities of the heads and members of proscribed terrorist organizations such as Babbar Khalsa, Khalistan Liberation Force and International Sikh Youth Federation, among others.

The investigations had exposed a terror-criminal nexus, suggesting that these groups, along with organised criminal gangs, were engaged in smuggling terrorist hardware such as arms, ammunition explosive, IEDs etc. from across the border for terror activities in various parts of the country.

In July 2023, the anti-terror agency chargesheeted nine accused, including Sandhu and another Khalistani terrorist, Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, in the terror case followed by two supplementary chargesheets against six others.

In August 2024, the NIA successfully secured the extradition of Landa's brother Tarsem Singh from the UAE and filed a third supplementary chargesheet in December.

Link

India-Pakistan

Tarn Taran terror strike: Terrorist Pannun of SJF hiding in the US reaches out to accused

2022-12-14

[OneIndia] In an expected move, the banned terror group Sikhs for Justice headed by its proscribed chief, Gurpatwant Pannun offered legal and financial help to those involved in the RPG attack on a cop shoppe in Tarn Taran. So far the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
police and Counter Intelligence Wing have detained around 12 people for their alleged involvement in the attack which took place on Saturday.

In a video message Pannun said that those who have been detained by the DGP and CM Bhagwant Mann government, I urge you to connect with the Sikhs for Justice. We will provide you with legal and financial help as well, the terrorist is heard saying.

The SJF has been at the helm of the Khalistan movement. Based abroad, Pannun has had a role in trying to incite the farmers during the farmers' agitation. He has also been open about how he plans to revive the Khalistan movement in Punjab. The Intelligence agencies say that he is on the pay roll of Pakistain and has made a lot of money to drum up the anti-India sentiment.

Low-intensity blast at Punjab cop shoppe, SFJ claims responsibilityLow-intensity blast at Punjab cop shoppe, SFJ claims responsibility

Pannun has also been at the forefront of several pro-khalistan referendums in the United Kingdom, Canada. His latest outing is in Canberra, Australia.

In other developments:

One of the three rocket launchers that was used to target the police has been recovered. Quoting sources media reports said that nearly three rocket propelled grenades (RPG) were dispatched to the local terror sleeper cells in Punjab with the help of drones.

Investigations have suggested that the criminal mastermind of this attack could be Lakbhir Singh Landa, the head of the International Sikh Youth Federation. He is said to have used his networks in Taran Tarn to execute the attack.

SJF claims responsibility:

Following the RPG attack on the Sarhali Police Station on the Amritsar-Bhatinda highway in Tarn Taran district, the SJF which is based in the US grabbed credit for the attack.

Reports the ancestral home of Khalistani terrorist Harvinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda is located near Sarhali. Last month Rinda was killed in Pakistain. He was the one who was involved in several terror strikes in Punjab and had supplied arms to the murderers of Sidhu Moosewala.

The agencies say that the attack at Tarn Taran were carried out on the instructions of the ISI. The intent was to keep the fear of Rinda alive in the region, the agencies also feel.

Link

India-Pakistan

5 Khalistani terrorists charged for smuggling arms, drugs using drone from Pak

2022-03-13

[OneIndia] The National Investigation Agency has filed a chargesheet against five Khalistan

...the idea of an independent Sikh homeland in the Indian (and Pak, but they don't dwell on that) Punjab. The local troublemakers are financed by the Sikh diaspora, who love the idea of the folks they left behind murdering their neighbours before dying romantically for a hopeless idea, with training and additional funding from Pakistain’s ISI via Lashkar-e-Taiba as yet another arrow in their quiver aimed at the Indian throat since the 1980s....

i ~~bandidos~~ bully boyz in connection with a narcotics and arms smuggling case.

The NIA has charged Harmesh Singh, Darvesh Singh, Gurmukh Singh,Gagandeep and Lakhbir Singh Rode.

Good Sikh names, all...

The NIA said that these persons were smuggling arms and narcotics from Pakistain and bringing it into India.

Investigation has revealed that the chargesheeted accused persons had smuggled illegal consignments of arms, ammunitions, explosives and narcotics from across the Indo-Pak border to carry out terror activities in India.

These illegal consignments were sent by accused Lakhbir Singh Rode (Chief of ISYF,

...the International Sikh Youth Federation, banned in Canada as a terror organization in 2003, and a favourite of Canadian politicians ever since...

a banned terrorist organization) and his associates from Pakistain via drones. These consignments were received by co-accused and further discreetly passed on to other accused persons involved in the conspiracy to carry out subversive activities in India. Incriminating evidences have been found against all the chargesheeted accused persons. Till now, 5 accused have been arrested in the case while accused Lakhbir Singh Rode is absconding.

Link

Great White North

Canada rescinds invitation to Sikh militant who was to dine with Trudeau

2018-02-23

[DAWN] Canadian officials on Thursday admitted that a Sikh Death Eater convicted of attempting to murder an Indian minister had been invited to dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in New Delhi, in the latest controversy to dog the premier's week-long visit to India.

A statement confirming Jaspal Atwal's invitation to Thursday's official event had been cancelled comes less than a day after Trudeau sought to quash perceptions his administration was soft on Sikhs seeking an independent state.

The Canadian embassy told AFP it "has rescinded Mr. Atwal's invitation".

Atwal was convicted for a botched liquidation attempt on an Indian minister in Canada in 1986, and was sentenced to 20 years by a Canadian court.

He reportedly attended an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, where he was photographed alongside Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire, according to Canada's public broadcaster CBC.

The embassy would not comment on whether Atwal was part of Trudeau's official delegation, although reports in Canada said Trudeau's office had denied this.

"We do not comment on matters relating to the PM's security," it said.

Atwal was a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, an organization outlawed in India and Canada, among other places, that seeks an independent Sikh state of Khalistan.

Link

India-Pakistan

Banned DeM operates freely in Kashmir

2017-06-10

[THENORTHLINES] SRINAGAR: Dukhtaran-e-Milat led by Asiya Andrabi figures among the 36 bully boy groups in the banned list, framed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Despite being banned, the group is operating in the valley and also running the office.

The NIA last Saturday raided houses of several Hurriyat leaders in connection with a case of alleged funding received by separatist groups for carrying out subversive activities in the valley. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
none from the separatist camp except the DeM figures in the banned list of 36 organizations by the NIA for carrying out "unlawful activities". In its official website, the NIA has put the DeM led by Asiya Andrabi under "Schedule I ‐ First Schedule (of the UA (P) Act, 1967) Terrorist Organisations".

According to the Act, "Any association can be declared unlawful if the central government is of the opinion that any association is, or has become an unlawful, it may by notification in the official gazette declare such association to be unlawful".

DeM is an all women outfit, was founded in 1987, and has been advocating to separate J&K from India.

It chief Asiya Andrabi was tossed in the calaboose
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
from her Soura residence on April 27, and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

The grounds of PSA order prepared by the police call Asiya a "diehard secessionist" whose "endeavour is to secede the state of J&K from union of India and in order to achieve it she has indulged in anti-national activities and has played an important role in 2008 Amarnath agitation and also in 2010 and 2016 summer unrest by announcing programs/rallies with secessionist elements".

In the NIA’s banned list, there are some of the bully boy groups who have or are operating in the valley like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen/ Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Pir Panjal Regiment, Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
/Tahrik-e-Furqan, Jammu and Kashmire Islamic Front, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen/Harkat-ul-Ansar/Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and Lashkar-E-Taiba/Pasban-E-Ahle Hadis.

Besides that there are groups like Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Commando Force, Khalistan Zindabad Force, International Sikh Youth Federation, al-Umar-Mujahideen, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in Assam, People’s Liberation Army (PLA), United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF), All Tripura Tiger Force, National Liberation Front of Tripura, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Students Islamic Movement of India, Deendar Anjuman, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) -People’s War, Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), Al Badr, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, al-Qaeda, Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT), Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES), Communist Party of India (Maoist), Indian Mujahideen
A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
, and Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) which too figures in the banned list.

Link

India-Pakistan

Indira's assassins glorified at Canadian Baisakhi parade

2008-04-13

VANCOUVER: Top Canadian leaders stayed away from a controversial Baisakhi parade, which displayed pictures of Sikh militants in the city of Surrey near here. Over 100,000 attended the parade, which is the largest such event by the Indo-Canadian community in the country.

Though there were no floats glorifying militant Sikhs during Saturday's parade organised by the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple, its pro-Khalistan message was unmistakable, with its lead poster proclaiming: "We salute our great martyrs."

The organisers had put up an exhibition of pictures of "shaheeds" (martyrs) on the temple premises. On top of the entrance gate to the exhibition was written in bold letters: "Story of Sikh Genocide in India".

Among those whose photos were displayed were Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, the two assassins of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, Sukha and Jinda, the killers of former Indian army chief General AS Vaidya, who is blamed for ordering the 1984 Army action at the Golden Temple in Amrtisar to flush out militants, and leaders of the banned Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation.

Under the headline "And those who betrayed the cause of the Sikh nation" were displayed pictures of Indira Gandhi, late president Giani Zail Singh, former home minister Buta Singh, late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and late Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, former Akali Dal president who had signed the Punjab peace accord with Rajiv Gandhi. Also included under this headline was the top leadership of the Akali Dal, including Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir and Tamil Nadu governor and former Akali Dal leader Surjit Singh Barnala.

The pictures of the mutilated bodies of young Sikhs allegedly killed in staged state killings were also displayed.

Since their presence at last year's parade, which carried floats depicting militant Sikh leaders such as Air India plot mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, later became an embarrassment for them, most political leaders decided to stay away.

British Columbian premier Gordon Campbell left for Vancouver Island. Attorney-general Wally Oppal, who is the topmost Indo-Canadian in the provincial government, too didn't show up. Opposition leader Carole James too was absent as was Indo-Canadian MP Neena Grewal.

However, former Canadian revenue minister Herb Dhaliwal was present at the main stage at the Sikh temple, as were some other Indo-Canadian leaders, including MP Sukh Dhaliwal, former British Columbia minister Moe Sihota, and Jagrup Brar and Harry Bains, both MLAs. "Everybody has a right to speech as long as it does not promote violence. So I have no problem in coming here," Brar said.

Surrey city mayor Diane Watts walked with the parade under heavy security, but stayed away from the parade organisers. The mayor and the city authorities had counselled the radical Sikh temple against displaying such floats as it condoned acts of violence.

Surrey is home to the largest concentration of Indo-Canadians, mostly Punjabis, anywhere outside of India. During the militancy in Punjab, it had become the hotbed of separatist pro-Khalistan elements.

Link

Great White North

Ex-Canadian PM sought support of terrorist group

2007-02-21

Paul Martin solicited the support of the terrorist International Sikh Youth Federation in his failed bid for the federal Liberal leadership in 1990, The Vancouver Sun has learned. Martin made an impassioned speech to the ISYF's national convention in which he said he was honoured to "meet friends who share the same belief in this country, the same belief in peace, the same preparedness to defend themselves."

At the time of Martin's spring 1990 speech, the ISYF had already been identified as a terrorist group by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Four in the group had been convicted in B.C. of the attempted assassination of a visiting Indian politician. Other B.C. members had met with a young would-be assassin who shot newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer in 1988.

The Martin speech came two years after then Conservative external affairs minister Joe Clark warned Canadian politicians to steer clear of the federation, the Babbar Khalsa and the World Sikh Organization because of terrorist links. The ISYF was banned in Canada in June 2003 by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien.

Link

Afghanistan/South Asia

'Pak exerting pressure to revive Punjab militancy'

2004-08-17

Pakistan continues to provide sanctuary to various Sikh militant groups and ISI was also putting pressure on these outfits to revive terrorist activities in Punjab, says the annual report of Union Home Ministry. "There are reports that Pak-ISI continues to put pressure on Pakistan-based pro-Khalistan militants to revive terrorist activities in Punjab," the report for the year 2003-04 said. It said that Pakistan continues to provide sanctuary to leaders of important Pro-Khalistan militant outfits like Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) headed by Wadhawa Singh, Khalistan Commando Force led by PS Panjwar and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) led by Lakhbir Singh Rode. Militant groups like Khalistan Zindabad Force led by Ranjit Singh alias "Neeta" and Dal Khalsa International led by Gajinder Singh also continued to receive sanctuary from Pakistani soil, the report said. It said that BKI and ISYF had been banned even by the United Kingdom Anti-terrorism Act 2000 and have also been included in the list of terrorist organisations by the European Union also.

Link

Terror Networks

ISI and Lashkar said to be training Sikh gunnies, too...

2002-04-08

Pakistan's ISI has entrusted the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the task of reviving militancy in Punjab, an Indian intelligence report says. According to the ISI plan, the Lashkar will impart arms training to pro-Khalistani outfits like the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) and the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF). The intelligence report says the Lashkar has opened at least eight camps in Pakistan to train the Khalistanis. These are at Kot Lakhpat, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Peshawar, Attock, Shahidan Da Banga and Gulbarg in Lahore. Intelligence reports say that the ISI plan to arm and train Khalsitanis was one reason why President Pervez Musharraf was reluctant to hand over to India the five Khalistani terrorists living in Pakistan. India had named them in its list of wanted terrorists and criminals.

Interrogation of Sikh militants arrested in India over the last year suggest that the ISI's plan was set in motion last year. The report says nearly 200 Sikh youths were recruited in the first half of 2001.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-9 More