United States    07-Mar-2017

Balwinder Singh, a citizen of India, was sentenced, on March 7, to 15 years in a US prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring while living in northern Nevada to plot terror strikes in his home country (India), US. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno also ordered Balwinder Singh to remain under lifetime federal supervision upon his release from prison after prosecutors argued that Singh has had ties to known terrorist groups in India for more than two decades. FBI Special Agent Aaron Rouse of Las Vegas said the plot was foiled after a co-conspirator was arrested trying to board a flight in San Francisco bound for Bangkok, Thailand, with two sets of night vision goggles purchased by Singh at a Cabela's sporting goods store in Reno. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan said it's possible Singh still will be extradited to India where he faces criminal charges in connection with a terror attack on a passenger bus that killed three people in India in April 2006. "This isn't somebody who was just recruited like some of the young people who think it's really cool to go get involved with the Jihad," Sullivan said. "Mr. Singh has been involved with terrorism or terrorist organizations for over 20 years."Prosecutors in the Justice Department's counterterrorism section say Singh worked with two terrorist organizations - Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) - to try to establish an independent Sikh state in the Punjab region.

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