The ISI-SJF meet at Nankana Sahib: Why India should be worried

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Dec 10: A meet at Nankana Sahib between some activists from the Sikh Community and the ISI has been under the radar of the Indian security agencies. The meeting comes amidst a pilgrimage that the Sikhs for Justice has promised to sponsor.

Intelligence Bureau sources tell OneIndia that there have been four such meetings that have been held and the last one was on November 28. The attempt is to whip up passions and push for support for the Khalistan movement, the IB source also informed.

In this context, one would need to look at the role that is being played by the Sikhs for Justice, a pro-Khalistan front which works in Canada, Europe and the United States. This was the same organisation that promoted the London Declaration of the Referendum 2020, which was backed and funded by the ISI.

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While the London Declaration event did not gain the traction that it would have hoped to, the fresh worry now is a programme that is being organised by the SJF. Reports state that the SJF is planning to fund the visit of nearly a lakh Sikh pilgrims to Pakistan to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, which falls next year.

The worry for the agencies is that the ISI would try and propagate among the pilgrims the need for a pro Khalistan movement. The ISI would also look to evoke sentiments, the agencies believe.

The agencies also feel that the ISI and its agents would go all out to whip up passions.

This becomes necessary for both the ISI and pro-Khalistan groups as the movement has failed to generate any great mass support. While on one hand, the ISI could build a terror infrastructure, they realise that no movement would take off as desired unless and until there is mass support and sympathy among the people. In this context, all efforts would be made to utilise the pilgrimage to Pakistan, an Intelligence Bureau officer informed OneIndia.

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Recently when the National Investigation Agency took over the probe into the killing of an RSS worker in Punjab, it made a startling revelation. The central agency said that this was a plot that was hatched in Pakistan. Funds came from Canada, UK and Italy, the NIA had also said. In Punjab, the ISI-Khalistan forces which work together have specifically targeted religiously important persons.

On their radar was a Christian Priest Father Sultan Masih who was killed in Ludhiana on July 15 2017. In Punjab there have been such murders galore and the year 2017 has seen five such incidents. In 2016, there were two such incidents.

The NIA probe into these incidents suggest that the mastermind is a person called Gursharanbir Singh who is a British national. He is the one who roped in Ramandeep and Hardeep Singh and directed them to kill Hindu leaders. The handlers who directed the killing of RSS and other Hindu leaders have been traced to Italy, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The Punjab police which is probing the case learnt that there is a systematic approach that has been followed to eliminate Hindu leaders by ISI agents. The motive behind the killings is to destabilise the state, the police say.

The ISI wants to cause communal tension in Punjab. Once the state becomes volatile then it could be used as a platform to launch the Khalistan forces, the police also said. The police got information about the modus operandi following three very high profile arrests.

Recently the NIA took over the probe into the killing of two persons-Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh Kumar at Ludhiana. An NIA officer explained to OneIndia that the during the investigation it was found that killings of Satpal Sharma, his son Ramesh Sharma and Durga Gupta were part of trans-national conspiracy hatched by senior leadership of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). Eight incidents of such killings were executed as part of this conspiracy between January, 2016 and October, 2017 in Punjab.

The objective of the conspiracy was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive the fledgling terrorism in the state. It was found that the conspiracy had its foot-prints in several countries including, Pakistan, UK, Australia, France, Italy and UAE.

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As part of the conspiracy, large amounts of funds were supplied through Italy, Australia and the UK to the perpetrators of the Killings/ Attempted Killings, viz. Hardeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh. These funds were used by them to purchase weapons for executing the killings and other logistics.