KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
The district police arrested two members of the Arsh Dala gang, who came to Faridkot to target an executive engineer of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) after he refused to give extortion money, after a brief encounter near Machaki Mal Singh village in Faridkot district on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The accused have been identified as Vimalpreet Singh and Ashu Kumar of Jalandhar. The police recovered two illegal .32-bore pistols and a .30-bore pistol from the accused.
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“Both criminals sustained gunshot injuries in their legs during an encounter with the police. They were admitted to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital at Faridkot for treatment,” Faridkot senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harjeet Singh said.
“After getting a tip-off, a team of the Faridkot police crime investigation agency (CIA) intercepted two criminals on a bridge near Machaki Mal Singh village but when signalled them to stop, the accused opened fire at them. Both accused suffered bullet injuries in the leg and were arrested. As per the preliminary investigation, both gangsters are residents of Jalandhar and they had come to Faridkot to target a local resident, who had refused to give them extortion money. They are associates of gangster Arsh Dala. The police had already registered a case last month when the Faridkot resident had got an extortion call from the gangsters demanding ₹20 lakh,” he added.
Both the gangsters were staying at Teachers Colony in the city using fake identities and they had planned to eliminate the PSPCL executive engineer, said an official, adding: “The arrested accused have criminal cases registered against them in various districts of Punjab.”
Canada-based Arshdeep Singh, alias Arsh Dala, originally hails from Dalla village in the Moga district of Punjab. He is associated with extremist groups, including the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). He has been involved in various organised criminal activities and is also connected to the notorious Canadian gangster Goldy Brar.
He is mostly engaged in terror funding, raising terror modules, coordinating the supply of weapons from the other side of the border, and planning specific murders across Punjab.
Rattandeep Singh, 49, a former chief of militant outfit Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (BTFK), was shot dead at Balachaur in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar early on Thursday.
Police said Rattandeep Singh, who belongs to Karnal in Haryana, was accompanied by his nephew, Gurpreet Singh, when two motorcycle-borne, unidentified assailants opened fire at him. Gurpreet escaped unhurt. A one-time hardcore militant, 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 BTKF militant was behind the blast on the railway bridge in Panipat the same year and had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) at the Shahabad-Markanda bridge in 1998. He was an accused in the arms recoveries in Jind district in 1996 and 2000.
Though Haryana Police arrested him in August 1999, he managed to escape. He was the kingpin of a group of militants who planted explosives in a vehicle near Circuit House in Amritsar in May 2010. He had smuggled the consignment of weapons and explosives from across the border.
A state special operations cell (SSOC) of Punjab Police finally arrested Rattandeep from the outskirts of Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh on September 17, 2014. He was carrying a Pakistani passport and identity card in the name of Hussain Sheikh Zahid. An official said Rattandeep was a Pakistan-based militant, who had been living there since 1993. He visited India to carry out terror strikes.
Jailed for his terror links, Rattandeep was released in 2019 after he completed his term. Since then, he had been staying with his family in Karnal as no case was pending against him.
Superintendent of police Mukesh Kumar said Rattandeep’s nephew told the police that they had come in their car to meet unidentified persons near a private hospital at Garhi village in Balachaur when the two motorcycle-borne men opened fire indiscriminately. The assailants targeted Rattandeep, who was injured in the chest and stomach and died on the spot.
The police recovered incriminating documents from his car and launched an investigation into his former links with the militant outfit.
Soon after the incident, gangster Gopi Nawanshahria took to social media to claim responsibility for the killing. “Rattandeep was acting as a police tout and has committed a fraud with innocent youngsters,” the gangster posted on Facebook.
The SP said the social media post could not be verified at this stage.
On the statement of Rattandeep’s nephew, a case was registered under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC besides the Arms Act.
The Assam police arrested the owner of a dhaba in the state's Bongaigaon district for putting up posters of Khalistani leaders and flags.
The roadside eatery owned by one Gurmukh Singh had put up a banner of terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala. A poster of singer-politician Sidhu Moose Wala, who was shot dead in 2022, and a Khalistani flag were also put up.
The members of the BJP's youth wing informed the police about the posters following which the dhaba's owner was arrested, sources said.
Gurmukh Singh is from Punjab's Tarn Taran district and has been in Assam for years now, sources in the police said.
"We suspect that he displayed the posters at his dhaba to attract truck drivers, a significant number of whom are from Punjab. Otherwise, it would be irrational for him to put up such material," another police official said.
Pro-Khalistan graffiti was found on a pillar of Punjabi Bagh metro station in west Delhi on Thursday morning, police said.
An FIR has been registered in connection with the matter, they said.
Police received a call around 9:30 am about the graffiti on the pillar of Punjabi Bagh metro station, an officer said.
Local police inspected the spot and found “Delhi Banega Khalistan” written on the pillar with black paint. The graffiti had been painted over in yellow. An FIR has been registered, the officer said.
Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has issued a threat to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that “Khalistanis” lodged in Tihar jail would “hold accountable” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for “taking Sikhs for a ride”.
In a video purportedly issued Sunday, Pannun alleged Kejriwal had misled the overseas Sikhs and collected almost $16.70 million (nearly Rs 133 crore) from them for his party.
This is not the first time that Pannun has issued a threat to Kejriwal. In January, he had threatened Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann while demanding the release of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) associates Jagdish Singh, Manjeet Singh and Davinder Singh — the trio arrested by the Punjab Police for their alleged association with the Khalistan Referendum.
A dual US-Canadian citizen, Pannun heads the SFJ in America and is wanted in more than a dozen criminal and terror cases in India. Apart from planning and supporting activities of Sikh militants in India and abroad, the banned outfit spearheads a Sikh referendum for the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh nation.
In the video message Pannun is seen standing before a large TV screen that is playing out news images and videos of Kejriwal and Mann.
Showing a picture of Kejriwal addressing Sikhs in the US, Pannun claimed that in 2014 when the AAP leader was out of power, he held a meeting and promised to release Sikh extremist Davinderpal Singh Bhullar from jail within “five hours of coming to power”.
“It has been 9 years since Kejriwal has been in power, but Bhullar has not been released,” said Pannun.
Bhullar is serving a life sentence in the Tihar jail following conviction in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast.
“Not only has Kejriwal not released professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar, any Sikh who talks about Khalistan is put behind bars by the Punjab government-led by Bhagwant ‘bhand’ (joker) Mann,” Pannun says in the video.
“Earlier, Mann used to be the stooge of Manpreet Singh Badal and collected lakhs of dollars in 2012. Since 2014 till date, Khalistani sympathisers have given funds worth 16 million dollars to the AAP to form their governments.”
“… and yet Sikh youth are being killed in false encounters on the orders and directions of Arvind Kejriwal…he and Bhagwant Mann are responsible..”
“Now he has been arrested.. and will go to jail…remember you will be confronted by Khalistanis..and they will hold you accountable why Bhullar has not been released…why Sikhs working for the Khalistan referendum were falsely implicated… why Amritpal Singh and his associates were arrested under the NSA (National Security Act) and sent to Dibrugarh (jail)… everything would be accounted for in jails…including the 16 million dollars that AAP took from Khalistani sympathisers,” said Pannun.
While the AAP Delhi has not issued any formal reaction to Pannun’s video message, its Punjab spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that the claim of Khalistanis funding the AAP was a blatant lie and an attempt to defame the party.
“If you see Pannun’s rise, you will see it is co terminus with the rise of the BJP and PM Modi. In all probability, he is a creation of the BJP and is conveniently used to level allegations against anti-Modi forces. None had heard about Pannun before the last few years,” Kang told ThePrint.
He added that Pannun’s threatening of Kejriwal about going to jail is also a feeble attempt of the BJP to scare the AAP supremo. “The BJP considers Kejriwal such a huge danger that threats to kill him in jail are being issued”
Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on 21 March in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam, Kejriwal is currently in a six-day custody of the central agency.
Meanwhile, Dr Munish Kumar Raizada, who worked as a doctor in the US for 21 years before returning to India and formed the Bhartiya Liberal Party (BLP), posted on social media platform ‘X’ information and pictures of the alleged meeting between Kejriwal and Sikh leaders that took place at the Richmond Hill Gurdwara in 2014.
Raizada claimed that he was a supporter of Kejriwal and was one of the persons who had accompanied the AAP leader to the gurdwara. He confirmed that apart from publicly attended meetings, Kejriwal held a closed-door meeting at the gurdwara with Sikh leaders.
The Indian government has shared the latest coordinates of Canada-based designated terrorist Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dalla of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) with the Canadian government and asked them to make a provisional arrest of the fugitive.
“Recently, the NIA, which is probing cases against Dalla, got some ‘specific details’ related to the latest whereabouts of him in Canada and also received the exact details of his car, current address along with some photographs. The NIA approached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) via MHA, who, in turn, approached the Canadian government through their embassy in Delhi, asking them to make a provisional arrest,” a source said, adding that no action has been taken so far against Dalla by the Canadian government.
A query sent to the Canada embassy did not elicit any response.
Till 2020, Dalla was working with Punjab-based gangsters, but later he shifted to Canada where he started working with KTF chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar and started running terror modules on his behalf. Nijjar, another designated terrorist under UAPA, was killed by unidentified assailants on June 18 last year on the premises of a gurdwara.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on January 9 last year declared Dalla a designated terrorist after it found his involvement in heinous crimes. “Dalla is involved in heinous crimes such as murder, extortion and targeted killings besides terror activities and he is also involved in terror financing, cross-border smuggling of drugs or weapons on large-scale (from Pakistan),” a senior official said.
After the killing of Nijjar, Dalla is handling all the operations of KTF and trying to execute some more killings in India, the official said.
Explaining provisional arrest, an official said on receipt of an urgent request from a foreign state for the immediate arrest of a fugitive criminal, the Central government may request the Magistrate having competent jurisdiction to issue a provisional warrant for the arrest of the fugitive criminal.
Dalla, meanwhile, has continued his India operations; in September last year, Congress leader Baljinder Singh Balli was shot dead at his home in Punjab’s Moga by two of his associates. Balli (45), who was also known as ‘nambardar’ locally, was the Congress block president in Ajitwal village.
Hours after Balli’s killing, Dalla, a resident of Dala village in Moga, took to Facebook and claimed responsibility for it. “I am responsible for the murder of Balli in Dala village because it was my own village’s politics which had made me tread this path. This man (Balli) was responsible for keeping my mother in CIA (police) custody for a week and he also got my friends arrested. He was hand in glove with police… and got my home vandalised. He destroyed my home just to gain his own afsar shaahi… My life’s aim was not to live my own life but to kill him. If we wished, we would have killed his child too but that child was nowhere at fault… Those who are sympathising with him, their homes are also not far for us…” read the post.
Reports from central Intelligence agencies over the past few months have indicated that Pro-Khalistan Entities (PKEs) are grappling with a leadership vacuum and are in the process of cultivating a fresh leadership cadre. Top sources quoting a recent analysis done by a central agency said that meetings to identify potential leaders for anti-India activities across various countries have been held multiple times with the expectation that apart from declared terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, new faces will emerge to spearhead operations in different countries.
Recent events have revealed a fragmentation within PKEs, as only a fraction of supporters agreed to stage violent protests during a recent gathering outside a venue visited by Indian diplomats, citing the absence of strong leadership. Sources also said that additionally, Pakistan-backed terror groups are intensifying efforts to recruit individuals to advance the Khalistan agenda, particularly in the UK and Canada, amidst reported discord among supporters during protests in Toronto and Surrey.
Sources said that despite ongoing efforts, Indian Intelligence agencies have been monitoring developments closely and have diplomatically warned against violent anti-India activities outside Indian consulates by PKEs. Furthermore, concerns persist over unchecked human trafficking operations facilitated by PKEs, which continue unabated despite alerts from Indian agencies and the apparent indifference of Canadian authorities.
Internal strife among previous leadership factions has further undermined the coherence of Khalistani terror groups, with documented instances of inter-group violence recorded by central agencies. Moreover, sources attribute multiple targeted killings in Punjab post-2016 to figures like Hardip Singh Nijjar and his associates, yet Canadian authorities have refrained from launching inquiries or investigations into their activities, dismissing them as political activists despite mounting casualties.
Highlighting the nexus between Khalistani elements and organised crime, sources have pointed out the involvement of many Khalistanis in drug trade in Canada, where inter-gang rivalries among Punjabi gangsters have become commonplace. Despite incidents like the murder of pro-India Sikh leader Ripudaman Singh Malik in 2022, allegedly orchestrated by Hardip Singh Nijjar, Canadian agencies have been criticised for their perceived lack of urgency in unraveling such conspiracies and apprehending the perpetrators.
A Khalistan supporter has been jailed for 28 months after stabbing two Indian-origin men and a female police officer with his kirpan at Indian Independence Day celebrations in Southall last year.
Gurpreet Singh (26), an Indian citizen, was carrying three kirpans and used one with a 20cm blade to stab his victims. He was ordered on Wednesday to forfeit all three kirpans to the court.
Whilst the kirpan is lawful to carry, judge Kwame Inyundo said it was not lawful to use as a weapon of offence.“The use of a kirpan, which is a dagger, in these circumstances is a highly dangerous weapon,” he said at Isleworth crown court.
“This was an impulsive reaction to the presence of Indian flags… It was premeditated with hostile intent to provoke public disorder,” he said, adding Gurpreet was “motivated by hostility on the presumed characteristics of his victims, including their religion”.
The offences were committedshortly after 10pm on August 15 in Southall Broadway when a large group of Indian-origin adults and children were celebrating Independence Day waving the tricolour. Three men, including Gurpreet, holding Khalistan flags, faced off against them in a confrontational manner. One of theKhalistan supporters grabbed an Indian flag and made off with it and then Gurpreet stabbed Nanak Singh in the back and shoulder and Ashish Sharma in the chest.
Gurpreet also swung his knife wildly at PC Justine Farrell, when she tried to intervene, slashing her finger, the court was told.
Gurpreet pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding of Sharma and Singh, assault occasioning actual bodily harm of PC Farrell, and affray. The other offences lie on file.
He arrived in UK in 2020 as a student, dropped out of his studies in 2021 and applied for asylum, the court heard, and he could be deported to India at the end of his sentence.
Lauren Bates-Brownsword, prosecuting, said: “Sikhs are permitted to carry kirpans for religious reasons but his use of it for violence risks undermining that dispensation in law.”
Philip Romans,mitigating, said: “It was Indian Independence day and he has expressed his views about the need for a Sikh separatist state within India. I don’t think he brought the kirpan to use it as a dangerous weapon. He just reacted. He has apologised to the victims.”
In a new video, pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) founder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has issued a threat against former Indian ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu. The leader of the banned outfit offered Rs 25 lakh to anyone who “targets” Sandhu.
Pannun, in the video, blamed Sandhu for the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist who was killed on June 18, 2023 in Canada’s British Columbia.
According to top intelligence sources, this is an open threat to Sandhu, who joined the BJP on Tuesday.
“Pannun is provoking people to attack Sandhu because he was the Indian ambassador in the US. This is a very serious threat and we will take it to our counterparts,” an official said.
Pannun, a Sikh extremist and known to be an American and Canadian citizen, is a leader of the so called ‘Sikhs for Justice’. He is wanted by Indian probe agencies on various terror charges.
The SFJ is a US-based organisation banned by the Government of India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for its anti-India activities.
In July 2020, Pannun was also declared an “individual terrorist” under the UAPA for promoting secessionism and allegedly encouraging Punjabi Sikh youth to take up arms.
A senior constable of the CIA staff of the Punjab Police was shot by a gangster at Mansoorpur village today.
On receiving information that gangster Sukhwinder Rana was in the village in Mukerian and having illegal weapons, a team of the CIA staff from Hoshiarpur conducted a raid.
Upon its arrival, the gangster opened fire in which a senior constable was killed.
DSP, Mukerian, Vipin Kumar told reporters that the CIA staff had received information about his presence, for which a raid was conducted in Mansoorpur village. During the raid, a gangster Rana opened fire on the police. The bullet hit senior constable Amritpal Singh in his chest, who was immediately taken to a private hospital in Mukerian, but Amritpal succumbed during treatment.
At the same time, Mansoorpur was converted into a police cantonment and a large number of police force was deployed to search for the accused.
SSP Surinder Lamba, who reached the spot, told reporters that the accused Sukhwinder Rana, a resident of Mansoorpur, already had two cases of murder and attempt to murder. The SSP said on receiving information that he had illegal weapons, the CIA staff came to arrest him. Rana fired three bullets at the CIA team in which Amritpal was martyred as one of the bullets hit him in his chest.
The police were conducting raids to nab the accused. The records of the accused were being scrutinised.
Meanwhile, releasing the picture of the accused, the police have also announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to anyone, who reveals his whereabouts and the name and address of the informer will be kept secret.