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Punjab : Pointers to return of terrorism |
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The interrogation of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the arrested chief of Babbar Khalsa International in India, has revealed that the organisation has drawn up a plan to revive militancy in Punjab. Hawara was to replace Pakistan-based Wadhawa Singh as the boss of the BKI globally. Before leaving India, Hawara wanted to leave a trail of blood by assassinating leading lights of the Government. During interrogation, he revealed that he was planning to use human bombs to create havoc. He is also reported to have been indoctrinating Sikh youth in the US after 9/11 for avenging the attacks against Sikhs. The human bombs, drawn from the cadres of Akhand Kirtani Jatha, were ready and could have been flown to India after the targets were fixed.
Akhand Kirtani Jatha , an extremist wing of the BKI, was instrumental in the killing of Nirankari Baba in Delhi in the 1980s.
Jaspal Singh, prime accused in the twin blasts at two cinema halls in Delhi on May 22, allegedly told his interrogators that the Babbar Khalsa International had plans to revive militancy with active assistance from its mentors in Pakistan. He allegedly revealed that during his visit to Pakistan last month, he had met the BKI chief, Wadhawa Singh.
Through his disclosures, the police have learnt that scores of youngmen like Jaspal are being exploited by the BKI for different purposes. In view of the huge quantity of arms and ammunition seized during the raids so far, we suspect that the outfit has smuggled in tonnes of explosive consignments from across the border via the Kashmir valley, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat”, said a police officer.
Punjab police said that they have identified 256 hideouts of Hawara in Ropar district alone. Hawara and his group had managed to establish a strong network in the state and abroad. However, the police have managed to smash 40 per cent of the network.
Immediately after his escape from Burail Jail in 2004, Hawara renewed his links with Babbar Khalsa leader Wadhawa Singh, who was residing in Pakistan and his son-in-law Surinder Singh in Germany. He also got a huge consignment of arms for operations in India.
According to police, Hawara and his associates Bota alias Sant and Gurdeep Singh tried to kill Baba Piara Singh Bhaniarewala on January 10 this year by planting a bomb near his residence at village Dhamana, Ropar. Fortunately, Baba escaped the attempt. The blasts in the Delhi cinema halls were Hawara’s second attempt to revive his terror tactics.
Singh said besides Bhaniarewala, former Punjab Police Chief K.P.S. Gill and other Congress leaders involved in the 1984 riots were on Hawara’s hit list.
Observers say that the latest developments indicate that extremist elements are making a strong pitch for the revival of terrorism in Punjab. Raising of slogans about Khalistan at important meetings of the Sikh community is an indication. Ever since terrorism was successfully contained in Punjab by the year 1992, one had never heard of slogans of Khalistan. Even the radical Sikhs had started speaking the language of moderates.
But the fact that Babbar Khalsa was fully involved in terrorist activities in the past two years at least, in which Jagtar Singh Hawara escaped jail, received money from Pakistan, networked with other militant and succeeded in planting bombs in Delhi cinemas is enough signal to expect an extremely alarming situation. Is the militant, Babbar Khalsa re-emerging on the Punjab scene ? Developments indicate that this outfit has in fact been realigning itself for quite some time.
Hawara was arrested in Feb. 1996 for his alleged involvement in the killing of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in August 1995. He was locked in the high security Burail Jail of Chandigarh. But he escaped with three other accused on January 21, 2004. He has finally been nabbed by the Delhi Police along with yet another absconder Jaspal Singh alias Raja, the main accused for blasts in Delhi.
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