NEW DELHI: Almost a year after Indian agencies found that Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) was attacking RSS leaders and was trying to revive militancy in Punjab with the help of Pakistan’s ISI, the government has decided to ban the Khalistani group under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Top home ministry sources told TOI that it had got a detailed proposal from the
National Investigation Agency (NIA) claiming that KLF, revived by Harminder Singh Mintoo (now dead) in 2010 and being run by UK-based Gursharanbir Singh and Pakistan-based Harmeet Singh, received funding from many countries including the UK, the UAE, Pakistan, Australia and Italy and it was dangerous for the country. Mintoo died of a heart attack in Patiala jail in April.
MHA officials said a decision on banning KLF would be taken soon. The ban, sources said, was essential to choke the funding, training and recruitment activities of the Khalistani terror group.
KLF, according to the home ministry, will be the 40th organisation to be banned. The 39 groups banned under UAPA include four Sikh extremist groups including Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Commando Force, Khalistan Zindabad Force and International Sikh Youth Federation.
The NIA has filed a chargesheet against KLF operatives including some NRIs and British national Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi for conspiring to carry out attacks in India. Two sharpshooters — Italy based Hardeep Singh and Ludhiana-based Ramandeep Singh — had killed RSS activist Ravinder Gosain in October 2017.
The outfit was involved in eight attacks between February 2016 and October 2017 before agencies realised the threat and cracked down on its operatives. The targets in KLF attacks were right-wing leaders, a Christian pastor, followers of Hisar-based
Dera Sacha Sauda etc. On the directions of ISI, KLF aimed to create communal unrest in Punjab, according to the NIA.
The agency said KLF’s objective was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and revive terrorism in the state.
“The leadership of KLF believes that it can revive the moribund
Khalistan movement by targeting members of specific communities, so as to polarise society in Punjab on communal lines. Organisations and persons who, according to the leadership of the KLF, oppose the ideology of the late
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale are their prime targets for elimination,” the NIA said in its chargesheet.
