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Journalism of Courage
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) V K Bhawra said last Friday that the recent rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) strike at the state police’s Intelligence headquarters at Mohali was perpetrated by an axis of the banned pro-Khalistan outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and gangsters with the backing of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Lakhvir Singh Landa, a gangster from Tarn Taran district who has been in Canada since 2017, was identified as a key conspirator in the attack, with police saying that he was an associate of Harwinder Rinda, who was close to BKI chief Wadhawa Singh Babbar and the ISI. Several local foot soldiers arrested in the case had helped the attackers with shelter, logistics and arms, police said.
Although the RPG attack did not cause any injury, several Opposition parties issued warnings about the revival of terrorism in the border state as they targeted the fledgling Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government over its “lack of experience and capacity” in dealing with serious issues related to security and law-and-order.
Babbar Khalsa, which had been banned under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, is the oldest and most organised Sikh militant outfit since India’s Independence. The ultra group got its name from the militant organisation “Babbar Akali”, which was active in the 1920s during the British rule.
While BKI reportedly operates in several countries, including Canada and the UK, it is most active in Pakistan under the ISI’s patronage. A section of BKI has engaged in informal negotiations with the Indian government in recent years, with several of their operatives adopting a “soft line” towards India. It has also led to the government removing the names of some ex-BKI militants from “terrorist black list”.
However, these developments have still not stopped targeted attacks like the one launched in Mohali on May 9, in which BKI’s role figures. A look at BKI and its trajectory over the years:
Creation of BKI
Unlike other Punjab insurgent groups, BKI came into existence not due to any direct conflict with the Indian government but with the Nirankari sect of the Sikh community.
Some of the founding BKI members, including its current chief Wadhawa, had association with the Naxalite movement that had made waves in Punjab in 1960s and 1970s.
The Baisakhi day on April 13, 1978, when BKI’s first head Sukhdev Singh Babbar got married, saw 13 Sikh activists, mostly from Akhand Kirtni Jatha (AKJ), including its head Fuja Singh, getting killed in clashes with Nirankaris in Amritsar. Sukhdev also belonged to AKJ.
In the next few years, many top Nirankari sect leaders, including its head Gurbachan Singh, were killed in targeted attacks. Later, those involved in these killings owned their responsibly under the aegis of an outfit named BKI.
Subsequently, Wadhawa went to Pakistan. Talwinder Singh Parmar, who was behind the June 23 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 mid-air en route from Montreal to London in Canada’s worst terrorism case – in which 329 people, mostly Canandians, were killed – was the key supplier of arms and other materials to BKI in its initial days. However, Sukhdev became the first BKI chief as Talwinder had left India soon after the outfit’s cover was blown in the wake of a bid to eliminate ex-deputy commissioner and Nirankari sect follower Niranjan Singh at Chandigarh Secretariat in1981. Niranjan’s brother was killed in this attack.
In 1983, Sukhdev owned responsibility for killing 35 persons associated with the Nirankari sect.
Aftermath of Operation Blue Star
Ahead of the Operation Blue Star, BKI had developed difference with Damdami Taksal head Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The first militant killed during the Operation Blue Star, Mehanga Singh Babbar, belonged to BKI. However, realising that the outfit will not be able to combat the Indian Army, the BKI militants had then preferred to escape from the Golden Temple premises. This move was said to have ensured BKI’s survival.
Babbar Khalsa has mainly remained involved in targeted killings. The construction of the SYL canal project, which had started following the 1986 Rajiv-Longowal accord, was halted in 1990, when the BKI militants killed its two engineers and many labourers.
In 1992, Sukhdev was killed in a police encounter near Ludhiana. Two years later, BKI carried out one of its biggest terroist strikes, assassinating then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in a suicide bomb blast.
There have periodically been reports in recent years that “behind-the-curtain negotiations” with the government have helped many former BKI members to return to India. Even the BKI associates like Seva Singh Lally, self-styled Khalistan president, was allowed to come to India and go back to the UK in 2019.
He had also held meeting with some senior government representatives. Lally has been in touch with Wadhawa, and BKI has also never disassociated itself from him. Many ex-BKI members now often come to India despite their connection with Wadhawa.
The Sarbat Khalsa-appointed Jathedar of a parallel Akal Takht, Jagtar Singh Hawara, had also been with BKI.
Lally had recently praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for declaring December 26 as “Veer Baal Diwas” to honour the martyrdom day of Guru Gobind Singh’s two younger sons, Baba Jorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh.
BKI’s nexus with ISI
BKI and Wadhawa are often linked to targeted attacks and smuggling of explosives from Pakistan into India. The nexus of BKI with Pakistan’s ISI led to the RPG attack on
Punjab Police’s Intelligence headquarters, according to police. Most of the alleged BKI operatives arrested in such cases have criminal records with various offences, gangster and NDPS cases lodged against them.
Unlike the BKI militants of 1980s and 1990s, these operatives refrain from claiming responsibility for their attacks, although they also do not deny their role in them either.
