MHA designates two outfits as terror organisations under UAPA

A Punjab resident with links to Pakistani terror groups, who is allegedly involved in murder, smuggling of drugs, arms and military hardware has also been designated as an “individual terrorist”

Photo used for representation purpose only.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday designated the Khalistan Tiger Force and the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force as terrorist organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. A Punjab resident, Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, who is presently based in Pakistan’s Lahore, was also designated as an “individual terrorist” under the anti-terror law.

The Ministry’s notification said that the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF) surfaced in the year 2020 as a terrorist outfit. It draws its cadre from various proscribed terrorist organisations, such as the Lashker-E-Taiba, Jaish-E-Mohammed, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jehad-E-Islami, and is involved in infiltration bids, narcotics and weapon smuggling, and carrying out terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. The notification added that the outfit threatens security forces and incites people on social media platforms to join terrorist outfits fighting against India.

The Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) came into existence in 2011 as an offshoot of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a banned terrorist organisation, the Home Ministry notification said. It added that the KTF was a militant outfit that aimed to revive terrorism in Punjab with a view to achieving its agenda of forming a separate state -- Khalistan -- and thus challenged the territorial integrity, unity, national security and sovereignty of India. The KTF is involved in various terrorist cases, including targeted killings, and its members are receiving financial and logistics support, including sophisticated weaponry, from its foreign-based handlers, the notification said.

The Ministry said that Harwinder Singh Sandhu, a resident of Sarhali village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, is associated with BKI and is presently based in Lahore, Pakistan under the patronage of cross border agencies.

Mr. Sandhu has direct links with Pakistan-based terrorist groups and is also involved in cross border smuggling of arms, ammunition and militant hardware apart from large-scale drug smuggling. He has been involved in various criminal offences such as murder, attempt to murder, contract killing, robbery and extortion in the States of Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. A red notice was also issued against Sandhu by Interpol in 2022.