Time Line-2018

India 04-Jan-2018

Addressing the threat of ongoing radicalisation and to interact directly with the citizens, the Punjab Police has aspired to launch its own Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts in the month of January, said Punjab DGP Suresh Arora. Providing the details of Punjab Police’s achievements of 2017 and further plans in 2018, the Punjab Police had dismantled eight terror modules with the arrests of 47 persons and seizure of 43 different weapons. Around 21 foreign nationals were accused of providing logistics and financial assistance to these terror modules, said DGP Suresh Arora

India 04-Jan-2018

Terming it as a ‘knee-jerk reaction’, India has dismissed the threat posed by the UK based ‘The Sikh Federation’ to encourage the Gurudwara (Sikh temple) diasporas to place a ban on the visits of officials representing the Indian Government. The announcement by The Sikh Federation is a sign of fear about the strong relation between the Indian Government officials and the Sikh Diaspora dispersed globally, said India’s Deputy High Commissioner to London, UK Dinesh Patnaik. The Sikh Federation believed to have support of around 70 Gurudwaras based in UK and around 300 organisations outside India supporting this ban.

India 06-Jan-2018

The NIA will seek support from the Interpol in providing information regarding Pakistan’s ISI involvement in the ‘targeted’ killings of Hindu leaders at various places in Punjab during the last two years., The ongoing investigation and interrogation of gangsters and Sikh radical group members had revealed that the financial support was routed from Pakistan to various members of radical groups based in the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, the US, and UAE in a proposal to revive Sikh militancy in the state of Punjab, said an unnamed official of Punjab Police. Some specific intelligence input does support that ISI was keen to establish allegiance between Khalistani outfits and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The NIA had confirmed that Harmeet Singh alias PHD— who is based in Pakistan, was an essential link between ISI and Sikh militant outfits, said unidentified sources.

India 07-Jan-2018

The BSF had recovered 20 kilograms of heroin worth INR 100 crores along with the Adhain India-Pakistan border outpost in Gurdaspur District of Punjab.

India 09-Jan-2018

According to unidentified sources in Punjab Police, the foreign-based pro-Khalistani groups are luring the young, educated, suave men and women from families with no prior links with Khalistan movement and radicalising the ‘new brand’ of Sikh militancy in Punjab. This is a new medium of spreading terrorist propaganda. The young men and women are getting radicalised via cyberspace. All investigations in such cases are handed over to the NIA. It is unclear as of how many such pro-Khalistani modules have been prepared for further anti-national activities, said Punjab’s DGP Suresh Arora. A British citizen—Jagtar Singh alias Jaggi Johal was arrested by Punjab Police on November 4, 2017 and during preliminary interrogation he revealed that top leaders of the Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF)—Harminder Singh Mintoo and Harmeet Singh alias PHD, are recruiting young Sikhs with support of Pakistan’s ISI to revive the Sikh militancy and other anti-India activities, said an unnamed Punjab Police official.

India 19-Jan-2018

The pro-Khalistan movement posters with the slogans of ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ (Long live Khalistan) and ‘Khalistan Referendum 2020’ were spotted on in Banga town and its adjacent villages of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District of Punjab. The ‘Khalistan Zindabad’ slogan was written in Punjabi language whereas ‘Khalistan Referendum 2020’ was in English language. The state Police has removed many such posters and reached-out to the CCTV footage of nearby areas to trace the persons involved in this activity.

India 23-Jan-2018

Investigation has revealed the involvement of pro-Khalistan module in the target killings of religious-political leaders over the past two years in Punjab. The module had paid more than INR 40 lakh to the alleged killers—Hardeep Singh alias Shera and Ramandeep Singh alias Canadian, to carry out the killings. When Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) visits India, other NRIs from their country hand-over some money and other things to give to relatives or friends in India. In their modus-operandi, instead of using direct transfer to bank accounts, the handlers paid to killers through such NRIs. We are trying to reach the NRIs,” said an officer on the basis of anonymity. These handlers were supported by the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and used to communicate the addresses of those NRIs through a messaging application—Signal, said another unnamed senior officer.

India 25-Jan-2018

Acting upon an Intelligence input from the Military Intelligence (MI) unit in J&K, the Punjab Police in Batala of Gurdaspur District arrested a man identified as Gian Singh as a part of an espionage ring that supplied the sensitive Military information to Pakistan’s ISI. The Police have recovered a mobile phone and two SIM cards from Gian Singh. The preliminary interrogation has revealed that Gian Singh was in contact with an ISI agent based in Pakistan and his task was to provide photos and videos of the Indian Army and the BSF deployment and movement along with India-Pakistan border. Gian Singh also revealed that Shamsher Singh alias Shera introduced him with an ISI agent. The Punjab Police of Batala is in close pursuit of Shamsher Singh.

India 25-Jan-2018

Putting forward ‘the facts’—a letter about the 1984 Sikh riots, the Indo-Canadians formed a group in December 2017 named as the Harmony Committee to counter the propaganda disseminated by pro-Khalistan groups active in Canada and mailed that letter to every elected representatives of the Canada’s Parliament and members of Provincial Assemblies across Canada. The letter highlights that then-Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who is a Sikh, had offered an apology on the issue in the Parliament. It also gives details of the different commissions of inquiry that examined the violence following the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “The total number of Police officers indicted by the two committees was 147. In all, 3170 people were arrested out of which 442 people were convicted for their participation in the riots in Delhi. In Haryana, 15 people were convicted, and in other states, 13 were convicted,” as stated in the letter.