Since early May this year, three prominent overseas Khalistani militants have died.
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LAHORE/CHANDIGARH: Wanted Khalistani terrorist Paramjit Singh Panjwar was on Saturday morning shot dead by two unidentified gunmen in Lahore, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, police said. Panjwar, 63, was heading the banned Khalistan Commando Force-Panjwar group and was involved
Designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a known anti-India face who was head of pro-Khalistan outfits Khalistan Tiger Force and the Canadian arm of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), was shot dead by unknown assailants at a parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, on Monday.
Avtar Singh Khanda, a leading exponent of Khalistan who groomed Amritpal Singh to lead the attempt to revive secessionism and the mastermind of the March vandalisation of the Indian High Commission in London, died in a hospital in Birmingham, UK, on Thursday morning, leaving radical British Sikhs
On May 6, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, the head ofKhalistan Commando Force (KCF), was reportedly assassinated in Pakistan, reinforcing the view in some quarters suspecting that ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency that has been the main patron of Khalistani terrorists, could be engaged in a purge to get rid of secessionists who have outlived their shelflives and replace them with younger blood.
Originally from Bhar Singh Pura village in Jalandhar, and a permanent resident of Canada for the past several years, Nijjar was an accused or chargesheeted accused in multiple terror cases including ones relating to SFJ’s 2020 Sikh Referendum campaign in Punjab; conspiracy to carry out targeted killings, including at RSS gatherings, a Hindu priest and temple staff in Punjab; and funding the procurement of arms and ammunition and training Sikh youths to give shape to terrorist activities in India.
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Pro-Khalistani leader and Amritpal Singh’s handler Avtar Singh Khanda dies at age 35, ISI hand suspected
His notoriety grew after he raised an 80-foot-high Khalistani flag at the Indian consulate in Vancouver. Nijjar also figured prominently in NIA cases relating to the organised crime syndicate run by KTF operatives in Punjab, Ha-ryana, Delhi and Rajasthan to raise funds through extortion and carry out smuggling of arms, ammunition and explosives across the border. In 2022, the NIA had declared a Rs 10 lakh reward for information leading to Nijjar’s arrest. In 2020, it had attached his properties in Jalandhar.
Many radically-inclined Canadian Sikhs condemned Nijjar’s killing and alleged an attempt to silence Sikh leaders espousing the cause of Khalistan — the charge reflecting the fear that moreKhalistani radicals who conveniently use their locations abroad to plot anti-India activities are no longer safe.
Nijjar had styled himself as a human rights activist to camouflage his antecedents. Canada-based independent journalist Gurpreet Singh on Monday made public his phone interview with Nijjar after Panjwar’s murder in Pakistan, during which he claimed he faced a threat from Indian spy agencies. Referring to the government declaring him an “individual terrorist”, among nine other Khalistani activists, Nijjar said, “Let’s see who is on the hit list. Agencies here have also been alerting us and we have been telling the agencies here that contract killers here can kill those who talk about human rights violations. ”
Significantly, a section in the Indian security establishment seems inclined to attri-bute the deaths of two prominent Khalistanis in quick succession to the rivalries among the various factions espousing the secessionist cause. They had earlier blamed Nijjar, a suspected ISI stooge, for facilitating SFJ’s UK arm chief Avtar Singh Khanda death under directions of the Pakistani intelligence agency.
It was said Khanda, who held an Indian passport, had become “inconvenient” with his role clearly established as leader of the mob that vandalised the Indian high commission in London in March. The ISI allegedly feared that Khanda could be deported to India, and might end up spilling the beans on how ISI has been using proKhalistani elements to foment trouble in Punjab.
Nijjar, agencies here suspect, was directed by ISI to eliminate Khanda through his aides in the UK.
Watch Another top Khalistani terrorist mysteriously gunned down in Canada