Currently being headed by Harmeet Singh from Amritsar, who has been living in a gurdwara in Lahore since 2008

Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that the accused in Sunday’s attack on a religious congregation near Amritsar were associated with the banned outfit, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF).

Security agencies say the KLF, an extremist organisation active in the 1980s, was revived in 2009 in Malaysia under pressure from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

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It is currently being headed by Harmeet Singh, alias “PhD”, of Amritsar who is working under the “tutelage of Pakistan’s ISI”. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) says Harmeet Singh has been living at Gurdwara Bibi Nanki in Lahore since 2008. He used Skype to radicalise an Italy-based Sikh youth, Hardeep Singh, and convinced him to come to India to carry out specific attacks. He would fly down from Italy every time he was assigned a target.

The NIA chronicled the revival of the extremist outfit in May when the agency accused KLF of being involved in eight incidents of murder and attempted murders of RSS leaders and a pastor in Punjab in 2016 and 2017. Singh and a sewing machine mechanic, Ramandeep, were accused by NIA to be involved in all the killings.

Founded by Aroor Singh

The NIA said the main objective of the KLF is to “liberate the so-called Khalistan”. Founded by Aroor Singh in 1986, the outfit had been active in promoting secessionist activities till 1994.

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“After being ousted from the Panthic [religious] committee, he [Aroor Singh] organised the Mai Bhago regiment under the banner of the KLF as the armed wing of the All India Sikh Students Federation (Presidium),” an NIA document said. It further said that after Aroor Singh’s death in 1986 and killing of other top leaders by security forces, Avtar Singh Brahma took over the outfit in 1987. After Brahma was killed in an encounter with security forces in Rajasthan in August 1988, Gurjant Singh Budh Singhwala took over. “Singhwala also died in an encounter on July 29, 1992 and after his death, Dr. Pritam Singh Sekhon took over in 1994. As per reports, he died in Pakistan,” the NIA said.

According to the NIA, in November 2009, Sandeep Singh, alias Jasbir Singh, who was part of the KLF in the 1980s and 1990s, came to Malaysia to meet Harminder Singh Mintoo, Bakshish Singh and Daljit Singh Khalsa. Mintoo was asked to carry out attacks in 2010.

Mintoo was arrested in 2014 in Thailand and deported to India. He was lodged in the Nabha jail from where he escaped in a sensational jailbreak on November 28, 2016. He was later arrested and died of a cardiac arrest in Punjab Central Jail.

“The leadership of the KLF believes that they can revive the moribund Khalistan movement by targeting members of specific communities so as to polarise the society of Punjab on communal lines. Organisations and persons, who according to the leadership of the KLF oppose the ideology of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, are their prime targets for elimination.

The members of the organisation also keep a close watch on postings on social media and choose targets who hold anti-Sikh views,” the NIA said.