SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Punjab: BKI – Widening Criminal Networks
On October 1, 2024, police arrested two Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operatives, Nitish Kumar aka Nikku Rana and Gurqirat Singh Bedi, in the Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) District of Punjab. They were linked to the US-based BKI terrorist Satwinder Singh aka Goldy Brar as well as associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in Punjab. The arrest was made in connection with the September 19, 2024, firing incident at an immigration-cum-coaching centre office in Dera Bassi, Mohali District. Earlier, on September 20, 2024, a day after the incident, three suspects involved in the incident were arrested from Dera Bassi. Two pistols and three live rounds were recovered from the suspects, who had demanded an extortion amount of INR 10 million from the owner of the immigration-cum-coaching centre, Harwinder Singh.
On September 7, 2024, Police arrested Dharmpreet Singh aka Dharma and Gurjant Singh aka Janta, key associates of BKI terrorist Goldy Brar, along with one pistol and five live cartridges in Amritsar District, Punjab. The arrests were linked to individuals facilitating organized crime and the possession and distribution of illegal firearms.
On July 18, 2024, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Baljeet Singh, an associate of Canada-based BKI terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu aka Landa, in Badwani District in Madhya Pradesh. According to NIA officials, he played a pivotal role as a major weapons supplier to Landa’s agents in Punjab.
On July 14, 2024, five associates of BKI terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu were arrested, and three pistols were recovered from their possession, in the Jalandhar District of Punjab.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 39 BKI operatives/ associates have been arrested across India since the beginning of 2024 (data till October 20, 2024). In comparison, 20 BKI operatives/associates were arrested in the corresponding period of 2023. Another four BKI operatives/associates were arrested in the remaining period of 2023, taking the total to 24 through 2023. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started documenting terrorist activities in Punjab, a total of 158 BKI operatives/associates have been arrested.
According to SATP data, since the beginning of 2024, at least 33 incidents of recovery of arms and ammunition from terrorists or their associates have been reported in Punjab. 12 of these incidents were linked to BKI, two to the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), while group identity was not confirmed in 19 incidents.
BKI is a prominent Khalistan terrorist group with a long history of militancy. Its formation was catalyzed by a violent sectarian conflict between the Nirankari sect of Sikhism and members of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, a devout Gursikh collective. The confrontation, which claimed the life of Akhand Kirtani Jatha leader Fauja Singh, set the stage for the creation of BKI in 1979-80, under the leadership of Sukhdev Singh Babbar and Talwinder Singh Parmar. Sukhdev Singh Babbar and Talwinder Singh Parmar were the founding members of this organisation. The organization’s activities first garnered attention when leaflets surfaced following the assassination of the Nirankari sect leader Gurbachan Singh, on April 24, 1980. There are at least two known factions of BKI. The first splinter faction was formed in 1992, when Talwinder Singh Parmar, the co-founder of BKI split from the parent body and formed Babbar Khalsa Parmar. The faction has presence primarily in Europe (United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland) as well as North America. In 2017, a second faction of BKI, the Jatha Bir Khalsa, came into existence.
The parent BKI has its presence in foreign countries as well. BKI formed its first overseas unit in Canada in 1979. Its presence has also been reported in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, and Pakistan. It has linkages in Thailand and Malaysia as well.
Currently, Pakistan-based Wadhawa Singh is leading the parent BKI outfit. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA), through a notification dated July 1, 2020, officially designated Wadhawa Singh Babbar as a terrorist. The notification inter alia reads,
Babbar Khalsa International remained active throughout the State of Punjab during militancy era and executed several major terror attacks in and outside India and also abroad and under the patronage of Wadhawa Singh Babbar, extensively undertakes recruitment drives for terrorist activities and his preaching wings regularly organise events in order to urge people to promote terrorism and support their actions against India.
BKI was involved in various terrorist attacks in India when Khalistani extremism was at its peak between the 1980s and early 1990s. Incidentally, the last major terror attack recorded in Punjab with direct links to BKI was recorded on October 13, 2007, in which seven persons, including a 10-year-old child, were killed and 40 others injured, in an explosion inside a cinema hall in Ludhiana, Punjab.
As Khalistani extremism was wiped out in the early 1990s, the major Khalistani terrorist groups became dormant on the ground, within India. In recent years, however, with almost no tractions on the ground in terms of mobilizing ideologically motivated cadres, these terrorist formations, including BKI, started working with networks of gangsters which had gradually emerged within Punjab. As a result, while cadres were substantially ideologically motivated in the early years – though engagement in criminal activities, or recruitment among criminals was also significant at this stage – in recent times this movement has now become inextricably entangled in a web of criminality, engaging in extortion, targeted killings, and sinister operations with organized criminal networks coming to the forefront. The shift in its operational landscape reveals a growing gangster-terror nexus both within Punjab and abroad, raising alarm over the group’s evolving tactics and the broader implications for regional and global security.
On October 11, 2024, the NIA filed a charge sheet against Wadhawa Singh Babbar and five associated terrorists, including Mandeep Kumar aka Mangli, Surinder Kumar aka Rika, and Gurpreet Ram aka Gora, while Harjit Singh aka Ladhi and Kulveer Singh aka Sidhu, each carrying a cash reward of INR I million, remain absconding. The case related to the murder of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Vikas Prabhakar aka Vikas Bagga, who was shot dead in his shop in Nangal, Rupnagar District, Punjab, on April 13, 2024. The shooters, Mandeep Kumar and Surinder Kumar, were arrested on April 16, 2024. Later, on April 18, NIA arrested Dharminder aka Kunal, a key accused and associate of foreign-based Khalistani terrorist Harwinder Kumar aka Sonu. Dharminder procured the illegal arms and ammunition from Madhya Pradesh and supplied them to the shooters on the instructions of Harwinder Kumar.
Meanwhile, Satinderjeet Singh aka Goldy Brar, a gangster who chose to become part of BKI, was officially sanctioned by the UMHA in January 2024. Brar is widely considered the mastermind behind the assassination of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29, 2022, in Jawaharke village, Mansa District, Punjab. In a social media post on Facebook, Brar claimed responsibility for the attack. His involvement extends to various criminal activities, including cross-border conspiracies, arms smuggling, issuing threats, and orchestrating multiple killings.
Earlier, in a notification dated December 29, 2023, the UMHA declared Lakhbir Singh aka Landa, an “individual terrorist”. According to a notification issued by UMHA, Landa was closely associated with Canada-based pro-Khalistan elements, including deceased Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, among others.
Furthermore, Harvinder Singh Sandhu aka Rinda, is identified as a BKI terrorist operating from Pakistan. According to a gazette notification issued by UMHA, Rinda is affiliated with BKI and is currently residing in Lahore, Pakistan. He has been implicated in a variety of terrorist activities, particularly in Punjab. Previously, Rinda collaborated with Landa; however, according to disclosures by NIA, the two have since ceased their association, with Rinda now aligning himself to the US-based gangster Harpreet Singh aka Happy Passia.
The September 11, 2024, incident involving the lobbing of a hand grenade (no casualty reported) at a residence of K.K. Malhotra, in Sector 10, Chandigarh, highlights the lingering threat of violence linked to BKI. Indeed, following this attack, Harpreet Singh aka Happy Passia claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media post, indicating that BKI and its affiliates maintain a well-organised criminal network with cross-border connections. This newly formed syndicate appears poised to perpetuate terrorism and other criminal enterprises within India.
The rapidly growing collaboration between gangsters and Khalistani terrorists, as well as the widening networks of their international linkages, are a cause for grave concern for the Indian security establishment, as well as for the security services of the host countries where extremist and criminalized elements have consolidated their relationships on the fringes of the Sikh diaspora. While the ideology of Khalistan now finds few takers within Punjab, purely mercenary motives are enabling the deployment of violence on Indian soil. Further, criminal activities of this gangster-terrorist combine in their countries of adoption are also expanding, creating current and potential challenges for enforcement agencies there. These developments bring significant risks of disruption both in Punjab and in the countries where this criminal-terrorist nexus has established itself.
HuT ban – Containing Radicalisation
On October 10, 2024, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), declaring it a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). According to UMHA, the group was promoting jihad and terrorist activities to undermine democratically elected governments, and to create an Islamic state and Caliphate in India and globally. UMHA also stated in the notification that HuT targets gullible youth to radicalise and motivate them to join the Islamic State (IS) and raise funds for terrorist activities. Further, the UMHA notification added that the organisation used social media platforms and secure applications, and also conducted Dawah meetings to promote its extremist ideology and terrorism.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 31 HuT operatives/associates have been arrested from across India in 2024 alone (data till October 20, 2024). Some of the arrests include:
October 8: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested HuT operative Faizul Rahman from Chennai District in Tamil Nadu. Rahman was identified as a Nakib/ State Amir of HuT in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and was the seventh accused to be arrested in case number RC02/2024/NIA/CHE, related to a conspiracy involving Hameed Hussain and others to spread disaffection and secessionism, and promoting the HuT ideology in India. NIA also revealed that Rahman was seeking military assistance from Pakistan to ‘liberate Kashmir’.
August 30: NIA arrested a key accused, Aziz Ahamed aka Aziz Ahmed aka Jaleel Aziz Ahmed, in the Tamil Nadu HuT case involving attempts to radicalise youth and establish an Islamic Caliphate in India. Ahmed was picked up from Bengaluru International Airport in Karnataka. NIA investigations revealed that he had conducted secret Bay’ahs (oaths of loyalty), where gullible youth were committed to the HuT ideology, and sought military assistance from forces inimical to India to achieve its goal. Ahmed was found to be one of the chief initiators for the conduct of Bay’ahs.
June 30: NIA arrested two operatives of HuT, identified as Abdul Rehman aka Abdul Rahman and Mujibur Rehman aka Mujibur Rahman Altham Sahib, from Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu after searches at 10 locations in five Districts of Tamil Nadu. The search led to the seizure of digital devices (mobile phones, Laptop, SIM cards and memory cards) and other incriminating documents (books and printouts) containing material on HuT, Khilafa, Islamic State (IS), as well as the proposed Khilafa government and its funding structures.
May 24: A team of Police personnel from the Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Police arrested the ‘chief coordinator’ of HuT, Hameed Hussain (an engineering graduate), Ahmed Mansoor and his brother Abdul Rehman, from Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Police said that Hussain had been uploading videos on social media on Caliphate rule and against the democratic election process.
May 25: Based on intelligence inputs, the Police launched a search at Tambaram in Chelganpattu District and north Chennai, and apprehended HuT sympathisers H. Mohamed Maurice, Kadar Nawaz Sharif aka Javid and Ahmed Ali, all associated with the three men who had been previously arrested on May 24. All the six accused are natives of the Chennai District of Tamil Nadu.
HuT, also known as the Party of Liberation, is a transnational Islamist movement founded by Palestinian Taqiuddin al-Nabhani al-Filastyni in 1953 in Jerusalem. It is considered an international Islamist political organisation with ideologies and affiliations with jihadist, pan-Islamist, Salafi and Sunni groups that share a common and principal objective of establishing a global Islamic Caliphate. HuT emphasises the unification of the Islamic world under a single Caliphate, rejecting all Western ideology and influence, and is strongly committed to the destruction and subversion of democracy. Nabhani drafted a proposed ‘constitution’ for the Caliphate. HuT operates in at least 32 countries worldwide across the Middle East, North Africa, North America and Europe, including the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Canada and Australia. Its headquarters are located in Lebanon and the group is banned in several countries, including Germany, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan and several Central Asian and Arab countries. Austria banned all symbols associated with the group in May 2021. On January 15, 2024, the Home Secretary of the UK, James Cleverly, placed an order before the UK Parliament to proscribe HuT under the Terrorism Act 2000, which was approved, proscribing the organisation as a terrorist group, on January 19, 2024.
According to inputs, HuT has been covertly active in India since around 2010, with a strong presence in the national capital, New Delhi, mainly among students. According to HuT’s website, its ‘India chapter’ organised a demonstration in June 2010, against Israel’s alleged atrocities, at Batla House, New Delhi, which was attended by about 1,000 people. However, with the arrest of two HuT operatives, Ahmed Abdul Cader and Irfan Nasir by NIA from Ramanathapuram District in Tamil Nadu and Frazer Town in Bengaluru, Karnataka, respectively, on October 7, 2020, its presence was exposed. Cader and Nasir were arrested as suspected terrorists of an IS module in Bengaluru, which was allegedly involved in radicalisation of youth and funding their travel to Syria to join the IS there.
The arrests of HuT operatives have mainly been concentrated in Central and Southern Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
HuT has been involved in various conspiracies to orchestrate terrorist attacks. Significantly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) disclosed on January 15, 2016, that the group was conspiring to carry out terrorist strikes at 23 locations across India on January 23, 2016, and, in another case, NIA lodged an FIR on June 4, 2023, in connection with the crackdown on the terror group on May 9, 2023, where 16 HuT operatives were arrested – 11 in Bhopal and Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh; and five in Hyderabad, Telangana. The FIR also mentioned that the group was planning to attack various religious leaders and places, specifically those linked to Hinduism, as well as crowded places, to create terror among “non-believers” or those opposed to Islamic rule in India. Additionally, the FIR also added that the terrorist group was procuring a cache of arms, ammunition and explosives, to execute the attacks.
Explaining the organisation’s tactics after the arrest of HuT ‘chief coordinator’ Hameed Hussain on May 24, 2024, an NIA spokesperson observed,
As an organisation, they kept their activities secret to avoid being caught, added like-minded people in their group and organised training camps clandestinely. Their preparations included training in arms-shooting and commando tactics to their group members. Their plans and tactics extended to attacks on police personnel and targeting individuals of different communities. This dangerous intent was aimed to threaten the unity, integrity, security, and sovereignty of India, with the explicit goal of striking terror among the people.
Simultaneously, HuT ‘leaders’ preach and inseminate Islamist extremist campaigns and an anti-India discourse to radicalise gullible youths, through various social media outlets. In fact, HuT activities in southern India came to light with social media posts of an accused, Mohammed Iqbal, about Islamic State (IS), inciting Indian Muslims to unleash violence against Hindus. Similarly, in an NIA chargesheet filed on March 14, 2022, in the Madurai Iqbal HuT case (RC08/2021/NIA/DLI), NIA revealed that Ziyavudeen Baqavi, HuT’s ‘chief recruiter’ in Thanjavur, Madurai, Erode and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu, and the Karaikal district of Puducherry, and another accused, Bava Bahrudeen aka Mannai Bava, were conspiring to establish new cells in various districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala through social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, etc., to recruit youth. HuT operatives also used encrypted web applications such as Rocket Chat and Threema for communication and to listen to Islamist extremist preachings.
The most recent arrest of Faizul Rahman, the HuT Amir in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, on October 8, 2024, by NIA revealed that the accused and his associates were using social media handles to spread HuT’s extremist propaganda. This was disseminated to their followers by the organisation’s ‘central media office’, through secret/encrypted communication platforms.
Interestingly, HuT has infiltrated several educational and vocational institutions in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, as was discovered after the arrest of its operatives during a crackdown in May 2023. The arrested operatives included highly skilled professionals, such as a dentist, a cloud services engineer, and a pharmaceutical biotechnology lecturer. Similarly, the ‘chief coordinator’ of HuT, Hameed Hussain, holds a doctorate in Mechanical engineering.
Indian Intelligence agencies in India submitted a report to and alerted the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) under UMHA on October 8, 2024, that, with the escalation of the West Asian Crisis, there is an increasing trend of online Islamist radicalisation in India. UMHA’s decision to declare HuT a terrorist organisation is, consequently, a significant step to curb the spread of Islamist radicalisation in India and to deter potential terrorist mobilisation and attacks.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
October 14-20, 2024
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.