How ISI tries pass of Khalistan backed attacks as ones by local Punjab gangs

The role of gangsters has cropped up in several cases of terror in Punjab. The ISI has come up with a strategy and thinks it can use it to give it a sense of deniability

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided 70 locations across states in the country in connection with the gangster-terrorist nexus case.

Searches were carried out in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

With 30 locations being raided, the operation was the largest in Punjab by the NIA.
The ongoing raids are in connection with a probe into a case that the NIA had registered against several gangsters and their criminal syndicates. Since the case was registered last year, this is the fourth round of raids being undertaken by the NIA.

The case is a very crucial one in the interest of India's security. Officials tell OneIndia that these gangsters are operating from foreign countries. They at the behest of the ISI keep in touch with the pro-Khalistan elements. They source local goons and undertake acts of terror the official also said. This also gives the ISI a sense of deniability as these attacks would look as though they are carried out by local gangs, the officer explained.

It was following the Patiala jail break and the RPG attack at Mohali that the NIA started looking at this gangster-terror nexus very closely.

During the raids, the NIA has managed to seize incriminating documents, illegal weapons, mobile phones etc.

These raids are crucial as the ISI is hell-bent upon exploiting the nexus between the gangsters and terrorists. The ISI is exploiting this nexus in a bid to revive the Khalistan movement in Punjab and neighbouring states. The terror groups while using these gangsters were roping in unemployed youth and using them to cary out terror attacks. The youth in turn were paid a small sum of money to execute terror attacks.

If one were to notice, prior to the NIA busting this nexus most of the terror attacks would get blamed on the gangsters, while the angle of the Khalistan movement would be left out. Further the Pakistan factor never came into play as all these attacks, be it strikes at police stations, killing of Hindu leaders would look like local incidents.

Further it was found that the ISI had picked one Harvinder Singh Rinda, a gangster turned terrorist based in Pakistan to further this network. The name Rinda had also come up during the investigation into the murder of Moose Wala.

The probe into the RPG attack on the Intelligence Wing Headquarters of the Punjab police had also initially looked like an attack by a local gang. However the Punjab police found that it was the banned Babbar Khalsa International which had carried out the attack with the help of local gangsters. The key conspirator of this attack was identified as Lakhbir Singh Landa, who has been operating from Canada since 2017. Landa is closely associated with Khalistani terrorist Wadhwa Singh and the ISI.

Similar links were found during the investigations in the Ludhiana court blast case. The attack that looked like the handiwork of a local gang, in reality was a terror attack by the Khalistan forces.