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Targeted killings in Punjab also on NIA radar: Says official
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has this month initiated probes in two such cases – firing on a priest, Kamaldeep Sharma, and sewadar (volunteer) Simranjit Kaur – on January 31 this year in Phillaur, seriously injuring them, and killing of a dera follower Manohar Lal in Bhatinda on November 20 last year.
Recent killings of civilians in Jammu and Kashmir has brought back into focus similar methods used by Khalistani terrorists to destabilize Punjab.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has this month initiated probes in two such cases – firing on a priest, Kamaldeep Sharma, and sewadar (volunteer) Simranjit Kaur – on January 31 this year in Phillaur, seriously injuring them, and killing of a dera follower Manohar Lal in Bhatinda on November 20 last year.
In both the cases taken over on October 8 by the federal probe agency, it looks to investigate a pattern behind targeted killings in both Kashmir and Punjab. In Punjab, the gunmen were given pistols on the directions of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canada-based chief of banned outfit Khalistan Tiger Force, investigators suspect.
The shooters, identified as Lovepreet alias Ravi, Kamaljit Sharma and Ram Singh, targeted prominent persons of other faiths “to create a sense of fear and disharmony in the society,” the home ministry said while handing over the two cases to the NIA.
Earlier, the federal agency had investigated and filed charges in eight targeted killings of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) volunteers, Shiv Sena leaders and Christian pastors in Punjab in 2016-17. It claimed in one of the charge sheets that “Khalistani outfits have been targeting members of specific communities, so as to polarize the society in Punjab on communal lines.”
In April, the agency filed charges against eight members of another outfit called Khalistan Liberation Force for the murder of Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a Shaurya Chakra bravery award winner, in Tarn Taran in October 2020.
“Islamic or Khalistani outfits in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, operating with the help of Pakistan army and the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani spy agency), have found this modus operandi more useful to them,” an official said, requesting anonymity. “The local operators, who act as hitmen, are provided with guns easily available within India or smuggled from across the border, for which money is paid through Western Union money transfer or hawala (informal money transfer). The specific targets are selected by handlers and these operatives are asked to attack and flee.”
“Using this modus operandi, Pakistan-based outfits aren’t spending lakhs in training terrorists and then risking their capture during infiltration,” the official said. “Increased use of drones to send small arms and ammunition is part of this strategy, and if we don’t have a robust plan soon, things will go out of hand in Kashmir and Punjab.”
