The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has expanded its investigation into the revival of the pro-Khalistan movement in Punjab to countries such as the U.K., Australia, the UAE, Italy and Pakistan.
A Home Ministry official said that though the involvement of pro-Khalistan activists based in Canada had not surfaced in the particular case being investigated by the NIA, there were intelligence inputs that established so.
On November 30 last year, on the Punjab government’s request, the Home Ministry handed over the probe into the murder of RSS member Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana to the NIA.
The agency said Gosain’s murder and targeted killings of eight others from January 2016 were “part of a conspiracy to destabilise Punjab hatched by Sikh extremist elements and others located in various parts of the world.”
The Punjab police had arrested Ramandeep Singh and Hardeep Singh for their alleged role in Gosain’s murder.
The accused were handed over to the NIA. The agency said the accused were asked to target members of the RSS and Hindu organisations. “Besides, in July 2017, they also murdered a pastor named Sultan Masih in Ludhiana,” the agency had said.
Foreign funds
The NIA said funds were channelled from foreign countries for execution of these incidents.
The official said the accused were brainwashed and were incited on religious grounds by their mentors settled abroad. On February 14, the NIA arrested an accused identified as Parvez, alias Farru, from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
Eleven arrested
It said Parvez provided the weapons in several of the eight incidents committed as part of an “international conspiracy whose objective was to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab and to revive militancy in the State”.
So far, 11 persons have been arrested. The Home Ministry informed Parliament on December 27 that Pakistan’s ISI was making efforts to provide “moral and financial support” to pro-Khalistan elements for anti-India activities as well as to revive militancy in Punjab.
Intelligence agencies were in a fix last year when Canadian Defence Minister Harjeet Sajjan visited India. Officials said there were inputs regarding Mr. Sajjan’s soft approach to pro-Khalistan activists in Canada.
