Khalistanis bid to terrorise BJP leaders

Khanistani terrorism is rearing its ugly head all again. Terror outfit Lashkar-e-Khalsa is sending out messages to and calling up BJP leaders asking them to quit the party or face death.

New Delhi, Jan 10: After badly losing the Kashmir battle, Pakistan has opened two new fronts in India - Kerala and West Bengal. But it has been looking for a 'non-Islamic' one for obvious reasons, and a few recent developments hint at the fact that it has met with some success, particularly among the Khalistanis. Threat messages received by BJP leaders across the country from 'Lashkar-e-Khalsa' (LeK) is a case in hand.

Khalistani terror outfit LeK has sent out messages through social media platform WhatsApp to BJP MPs and MLAs of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra asking them to desert the party, and even to join the Congress in one case. It has also warned them that if they do not follow the diktat, their life as well as that of their family members would be in jeopardy.

Threat to BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh

One such message has been received by Ghan Shayam Lodhi, Member of Parliament from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. According to the MP, the message sent by LeK leader Sandeep Singh has asked him to leave BJP forthwith or else he and all his family members will be killed. Similarly, BJP leader Veer Singh Saini, a resident of Chhajlet village in Kanth tehsil of Moradabad district, has also received such a message. Saini is an office bearer of BJP's Kisan Morcha.

Similar messages have been sent from different accounts to a number of people belonging to the party as well as its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It has come to light now that even some people working in the armed forces have received such messages. After sending the messages, the terrorists also followed it up with five calls from the phone number 7609875306.

Uttar Pradesh Police is on high alert after receiving complaints in this regard. It has registered an FIR and is trying to ascertain the identity of the senders.

Maharashtra BJP leader too targeted

A similar incident has been reported from Mumbai too. BJP youth leader Tajinder Singh Tiwana has also received similar messages and phone calls from the same person Lodhi had earlier received the message. Tiwana said the caller introduced himself as the terror outfit's spokesperson and vowed to kill Tiwana and his family members if he didn't quit his party.

Sandeep Singh also asked Tiwana to raise slogans like "Hindustan M-----d" and "Khalistan Z-----d". The terrorist further said that they are going to target all of the cadres of BJP and RSS as well as the entire country. After the incident, Mumbai Police has also registered an FIR and is trying to trace the location of the caller.

Punjab leader is the first one

For the Khalistan terrorists, Punjab is obviously the first play ground. So, it is obvious that the BJP leaders of the State are the first ones to have faced it. Party's youth leader Abhilakshya, who is the son of Jalandhar district vice-president Vivek Khanna and local councilor Shaili Khanna, received a death threat from the same Sandeep Singh last month.

In a WhatsApp call, the spokesperson of the terror outfit asked Khanna to quit BJP and join Congress or remain prepared to face "dire consquences". He also asked Khanna to tell his voters too to vote for the grand old party. It is said that many other BJP leaders, including some big shots, have also received similar messages and calls but are not coming forward to make it public for obvious reasons.

ISI footprints

Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports reveal that Pakistan's military intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is behind grooming of this terrorist outfit "Lashkar-e-Khalistan". It is very active on social media and its Facebook page "Azad Khalistan" is being administered by a group from Pakistan, the 'epicentre of terrorism'. The mastermind behind it is Gopal Singh Chawla, who is the general secretary of Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) in Pakistan.

Chawla is also known to be a close aide of the chief of Jamaat-Ul-Dawa. He was not only a Khalistani supporter but also a recruiter for the ISI. In a story published a year ago, Harpal Singh Pala, son of a former IAF official, had admitted that he was radicalised by Chawla and recruited as an ISI agent. Impressed by Chawla's preachings, Pala had sent him a friend request on Facebook. This is how Pala got in touch with the terror leader and got radicalised in the process.

The enemy within

Pala was running a dairy farm in Bhatija village but as his father was an airman, he was privy to many strategic information which he leaked to Chawla though for a cost. Pala came under the radar of the security agencies when one day, he made a call from his mobile phone to a Pakistani mobile number as the internet connection was down that day. After his arrest, Pala was found to be in touch with Paramjit Singh Panjwad and Ranjit Singh Neeta, the chief of proscribed terror outfit Khalistan Zindabad Force. That proved to be the last nail in his coffin.

Pala was also in touch with other terrorists who were staying in foreign countries. The ISI is making a new plan to impose a 5th generation warfare against India by building a narrative on social media, especially Facebook. ISI official Amir Khalistani is said to be the administrator of many Facebook pages in the name of "Azad Khalistan" having few people under him to manage the pages and set the narrative.

Old modus operandi

The mode of operation the outfits are adopting now is similar to that of the time of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It is the same kind of propaganda being spread then through a magazine "Akali Patrika" under the editorship of Jagdev Singh Talwandi.

Author and columnist Tavleen Singh has mentioned about it in the book "Punjab Story" (Chapter - 'Terrorists in the Temple', page - 53). She has quoted former MP Bibi Rajender Kaur as saying, "The slavery that we faced during the time of British rule has been nothing compared to the slavery since 1947."

Camps in Afghanistan

A number of LeK recruits are undergoing training in Afghanistan at the behest of the Pakistan 'deep state', according to intelligence reports. ISI is now trying hard to lure the local gangsters of Punjab and Haryana with huge supply of drugs and money to them.