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India revisits Sikh
terror
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Bomb blasts in two cinemas in
New Delhi, which were initially seen as the work
of miscreants opposed to the screening of a
controversial Bollywood film, appear to be the
work of the dreaded Babbar Khalsa International,
which has strong connections among the Sikh
diaspora in Canada.
Early on Wednesday,
Jagtar Singh Hawara, chief of the Babbar Khalsa
International in India, who made a dramatic escape
from jail in India last year, and two others
suspects in the blasts were arrested, raising
concerns over the revival of Sikh terrorism in
India.
On May 22, bombs placed in two
Delhi cinemas screening the movie Jo bole so
nihal went off, killing one person and
injuring more than 100 others. The movie had run
into some trouble with sections among the Sikh
community that were opposed to scenes in the film
depicting sex and violence and which allegedly
denigrated the Sikh faith. The film's title is
part of a Sikh slogan Jo bole so nihal, sat sri
akal (He who takes god's name is blessed) - a
Sikh battle cry. Following objections from several
Sikh organizations, the screening of the film was
stopped in the state of Punjab. The blasts in
Delhi were initially seen as just an angry
response to the film.
With the arrests of
these Babbar Khalsa militants a larger game plan
has emerged. According to a report from the Press
Trust of India, the blasts were part of a larger
strategy to stoke communal tension and revive Sikh
militancy. Militants have apparently revealed to
the police plans to assassinate three prominent
Sikh leaders of Punjab. Ammunition and explosives
have been recovered from hideouts in Delhi.
Listed as a terrorist organization in
India, the Babbar Khalsa International was founded
in 1981 in Canada by Canadian Sikhs Sukhdev Singh
Babbar and Talwinder Singh Parmar. Its members in
India had been active in the emerging Sikh
militancy in Punjab, and had engaged in the
violent Sikh sectarian clashes (Akalis vs
Nirankaris) from 1979 to 1980.
The Babbar
Khalsa was among the many Sikh militant groups
demanding the creation of Khalistan, a separate
Sikh state, during the 1980s. While some of the
Sikh militant outfits used guns and violence to
engage in crime in Punjab, the Babbar Khalsa was
into big-time terrorism. It was engaged in some of
the most brutal of killings and kidnappings that
rocked Punjab at the time. It is said to have
masterminded the June 23, 1985, mid-air explosion
of Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland
that left 329 passengers dead. However, Ripudaman
Singh Malik and Agaib Singh Bagri were acquitted
in March of first-degree murder and conspiracy
charges in the case. A third man, Inderjit Singh
Reyat, is serving a five-year sentence after he
pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
In 1995, a
Babbar Khalsa suicide bomber assassinated Punjab
chief minister Beant Singh in Chandigarh, the
state capital.
Unlike most of the Sikh
terror outfits that became defunct by the early
1990s under the onslaught of India's
counter-terrorism operations in Punjab, the Babbar
Khalsa has remained alive, thanks to patronage
from across the border in Pakistan, and its
significant network and support base in Canada,
Britain and the US.
Throughout the 1980s
and 1990s, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
is widely believed to have provided funds, arms,
training and sanctuary for Sikh terrorists. Wadhwa
Singh and Mehal Singh are reportedly based in
Pakistan and are among the 20 most-wanted
terrorists whom India wants Pakistan to extradite.
Terrorist outfits like Babbar Khalsa
benefited immensely from Pakistan's sanctuary for
its leaders and members, especially at the height
of the Indian counter-terrorism operations, for
under pressure from the Indian army and the Punjab
police, cadres could strike in India and slip
across the border to safe homes in Pakistan.
However, what has enabled Babbar Khalsa to
survive for so many decades has been its network
in Canada among the Sikh diaspora.
Following "Operation Bluestar" in June
1984, when the Indian army stormed the Golden
Temple in Amritsar - the holiest shrine for Sikhs
- to flush out terrorists who had lodged
themselves there, Sikh alienation from the Indian
state soared. This turned into support for a
separate Khalistan in October-November that year,
when more than 3,000 Sikhs were butchered in
anti-Sikh violence in Delhi following the
assassination of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi
by her Sikh bodyguards.
While support for
Sikh separatism and extremism existed among the
Sikh community in North America and Europe even
before Operation Bluestar, the events of 1984
resulted in a dramatic increase in support for
Sikh extremism among them. Funds poured in for
"the cause". Support for Khalistan and extremism
was expressed at public meetings.
Despite
efforts by the Indian government to get Canada,
the US and European countries to extradite Sikh
extremist leaders based abroad and to crack down
on their open fundraising there, the governments
of these countries simply looked the other way.
Sikh extremists were able to successfully convince
these governments that they were "victims of a
policy of intolerance and discrimination based on
religion being pursued by the Indian government".
The Canadian government's role in the
growth of Babbar Khalsa was significant. It failed
to act early against fundraising on its soil. Sikh
extremists took control of Sikh temples in Canada
and in the process gained access to donations made
by devotees. Provincial government grants to Sikh
schools were diverted to the "Khalistan cause".
The Canadian government granted the Babbar Khalsa
charity status, which enabled it to raise funds
and issue tax receipts to its donors. This despite
the fact that the Babbar Khalsa and other Sikh
extremist outfits in Canada were not only killing
civilians back in Punjab, but also scores of
Canadians of Sikh origin in Canada who did not
support their terror tactics and fundamentalist
agenda.
Only in 1996 was Babbar Khalsa's
charitable status revoked. In 2000, Britain
proscribed the Babbar Khalsa. The Canadian
government added Babbar Khalsa to its list of
banned terrorist organizations in June 2003, and
the US included it in its Terrorist Exclusion List
in April 2004.
The South Asia Terrorism
Portal cites reports to point out that terrorist
groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba have been
working with Babbar Khalsa to revive anti-India
terrorism in Punjab. It is in this context that
the recent blasts in Delhi's cinemas raises
concern that this might be the beginning of a
return of terrorism in Punjab.
The Indian
government is not taking any chances. Security has
been tightened in Punjab and Delhi, with those on
the terrorist hit-lists being given more
protection. Sikh organizations such as the
Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee - the
supreme body managing Sikh shrines in the country
- that demanded a ban on the movie, have condemned
the bomb blasts. But they will have to stand up to
the terrorists and deny their violence legitimacy
if the return of terrorism to Punjab is to be
nipped in the bud.
Sudha
Ramachandran is an independent
journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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