Sikh Militants with RDX: Dangerous Combination for India’s Security

By Animesh Roul

At least three suspected militants affiliated to International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF-Rode) were arrested from different locations on Dec. 24 in Jalandhar (Punjab) along with approx. 11 kg of RDX and other ammunitions. Punjab police sources opined that the explosives were to be used for carrying out disruptive activities during the forthcoming State Assembly election. The militants were identified by the investigating agencies. Jaswinder Singh was arrested from the Chhotti Baradari area with two kg of RDX and a hand grenade. Amolak Singh and Paramjit Singh Dhaddi were arrested with three kgs and six kgs of RDX hand grenades, detonators respectively from undisclosed locations.

The Khalistran separatist movement of 1980s though suppressed strong-handedly by State agencies later in that decade, often shows its ugly head in India, with splinter groups still active in foreign land and with suspected ISI’s ‘arms and alms’. May last year (2005), Couple of bombs went off in two movie theaters in New Delhi during screenings of the controversial movie Jo Bole So Nihaal (Sikh War Cry). Who can forget the 1984- Operation Blue Star when the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab – considered the holy seat of Sikhism – to flush out separatists fighting for a so called Khalistan homeland. Subsequent to the Operation, then-prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her personal Sikh bodyguards. What happened there after is history though.

In the past, various interrogation reports suggested remnants of Punjab militancy have been under constant pressure from Pakistan’s ISI to carry out operations against India and to revive insurgency once again in Punjab, which is a bordering and Strategic State. A list of these groups is given below. This is an excerpt from an article written in August 2005 in SSPC’s Opinion/Analysis Section. The author and the editor/publisher had received frantic phone calls from London and elsewhere from sympathizers of the movement lodging their protest against the content.

Apart from Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), other Khalistan militant outfits like ISYF-Rode with Kama Ghata Maru Dal of Harmit Bhakna, a Germany based terrorist outfit, Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), headed by Ranjit Singh Neeta, Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) - Panjar, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and Dal Khalsa International (DKI), have been making effort to revive militancy in the State. Further, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has been making efforts during the last couple of years to create bases in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Pathaankot and Udhampur areas in Jammu and Kashmir. There are reports that the Punjab militants have so far maintained close association with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Al Burq and Jammu Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF).

Presently, the outfit is more or less active in the USA, Canada and the UK along with other European countries like Germany, France, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and neighboring Pakistan. It seems the Punjab conflict was managed properly, but the resolution part of the conflict has been neglected since 1993. As a result, residual militants are either making their own arrangement to lead normal life or wooed by the sinister ISI designs and J& K based outfits. Now the onus is on the government to plan out how to tackle the situation, before it goes out of hand.

For a Full Article , See : “Punjab Militancy: Remnants Reviving or Loosing Ground”.

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