Khalistan and Terrorism in Punjab

Last week the funeral of the Sikh guru killed in Vienna on 24th May, Sant Ramanand Dass, was held in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. His murder in a temple sparked such violent protests in Punjab between opposing Sikh factions that the government intervened to impose a curfew for two days. Yet reports of the violence in the international media have subsided, largely due to it claiming 'only' three lives. However this latest case of religious conflict should not be dismissed so readily.

Responsibility for the murder of the religious leader has been claimed in a letter sent to several Sikh broadcasters in India and to the London based radio station, Radio Akash, by a Sikh named Ranjit Singh Neeta, a name already well-known to the Indian government, secret service and police. Neeta is the leader of the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), a group which also appears on the US terrorist watch list. The KZF is composed of Sikhs mainly from Jammu and is responsible for committing several high-profile acts of terrorism in India over recent years with the aim of achieving the creation and independence of a sovereign Sikh state, Khalistan.

According to the Indian police, in recent years Sikh extremism has been reorganising itself through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, an organisation based in Lahore which is currently hosting Neeta and is believed to have close links with Islamist guerrilla groups in Kashmir, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-I-Mohammed. Wadhawa Singh Babbar is also currently residing in Pakistan, where he leads his organisation, Babbar Khalsa. In 2005 the EU included this group in its list of terrorist organisations, thereby ordering all member states to freeze its bank accounts. The Indian government has also warned its European counterparts to be vigilant for cells of Babbar Khalsa, especially during celebrations for Sikh new year, when European followers are believed to recruit new members and hold rallies.