New Delhi, May 13: Noting that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI has been active in Punjab and providing all kinds of logistic and financial support, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said that pro-Khalistan groups are hiring local criminals to carry out terror activities and revive militancy in the state.
Suggesting that local police officers, district magistrates and senior IAS and IPS officers should be alerted about the covert activities of pro-Khalistani groups, the IB in its report, according to a senior MHA official, has cautioned the state government that some local gangsters “are in constant touch with pro-Khalistan groups” which have a presence in many Western countries.
It is also learnt that in the report, the IB has asked the MHA to issue directions to the state government to make a list of local criminals and keep a watch on them.
A senior MHA official said, “Intelligence inputs have revealed that a pro-Khalistan group from the UK has started a campaign through social media urging the people of Punjab to join the Khalistan struggle. They are hiring local gangsters to neutralise people and leaders opposing the Khalistan struggle.”
These groups are allegedly sending money to the criminals via hawala to carry out terror activities. In this exercise, they are getting proactive support from Pakistan’s ISI, the IB has claimed in its report.
Sources in the MHA said the report mentions that such groups, which are operating from European countries, are luring criminals and anti-social elements by offering education and job opportunities to their family members abroad. Intelligence input suggests that around 100 people related to these local criminals have moved out of India to greener pastures in Europe.
The NIA, which is probing the murder case of local RSS leader Ravinder Gosain, had last week filed a chargesheet accusing 15 who belonged to the Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF). In the chargesheet, the agency had also said the killing of the RSS leader was a transnational conspiracy hatched by the KLF’s senior leadership.
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