Not just Pakistan, even Malaysia, Italy have contributed to revival of terror in Punjab

New Delhi, Nov 22: The recent attack in Amritsar and the subsequent investigations have brought up the name of a dreaded outfit called the Khalistan Liberation Force. The banned outfit is said to be behind the incident in which three persons died, Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh said.

The KLF which was formed in the 1980s at the peak of Punjab terrorism had almost faded out, following the massive crackdown by K P S Gill and his men. However with the ISI giving most of the top militants from Punjab in Pakistan, there was a plan afloat for long to revive terrorism in Punjab.

The National Investigation Agency, which has probed into the activities of the KLF says that its members had made several trips to Malaysia and planned the revival. In its chargesheet, it has named several KLF operatives including NRIs and British national Jagtar Singh for conspiring to carry out attacks in India.

The outfit is currently headed by Harmeet Singh. A resident of Amritsar, he has been residing at Gurdwara Bibi Nanki in Lahore since 2008. The NIA probe found that he had been in touch with an Italy based shooter, Hardeep Singh.

Following this the plan to murder RSS leaders was hatched. The NIA learnt that there were 8 such incidents, which included murder and attempt to murder.

The NIA also speaks about a meeting that took place in Malaysia. Sandeep Singh of the KLF had visited Malaysia and met with Harminder Singh Mintoo, who was in turn told to go to India and carry out attacks.

Mintoo was arrested in 2014 at Thailand and then deported to India. He later died of cardiac arrest in the Punjab Central Jail.

NIA officials tell OneIndia that the KLF has its sympathisers across the world. They are mainly found in Canada, Italy, Malaysia and the UK. They are drumming up support from various quarters in a bid to make their claim for a separate Khalistan legitimate.