Kill all Hindu leaders ahead of polls: IB intercept states

Intelligence Officials say that Sikh militant groups and the Lashkar-e-Taiba are coming together to carry out a major attack in India

New Delhi, Nov 21: Under the radar of Sikh militants and the Lashkar-e-Taiba are VHP and RSS leaders. A plan has been hatched in Pakistan to target these leaders ahead of the assembly elections.

The intercepts picked up and deciphered by the Multi Agency Centre, the counter terrorism unit suggests that militant forces are being mobilised in large numbers to carry out a spate of attacks on Hindu leaders ahead of the elections.

"The threat is serious and the intercept Grade A," said an Intelligence Bureau official. "The information picked up by us suggests that the Sikh militant groups and the Lashkar-e-Taiba are coming together to carry out a major attack in India. We have warned the respective police forces to be on guard and we suspect that the target states would be Punjab and Uttar Pradesh," the official said.

Two pronged attack

As per the information available, the attacks would be two pronged. While the Sikh militants would target the Hindu leaders, the Lashkar-e-Taiba would carry out a fidayeen strike. Killing of Hindu leaders is bound to cause immense tensions and will lead to communal riots.

"This would shake the security mechanism and that is when the Lashkar-e-Taiba would come in to strike," the officer noted.

The rise of Sikh militancy is an often spoken about subject in Intelligence circles. The threat is real, but the ISI has been slow in launching these militants into India, the IB officer noted.

These groups will look to hit India at a time when security officials will be busy with election duty. The alert has been issued early so that the moves made by militants can be thwarted at an early stage.

"The Lashkar-e-Taiba would look to carry out attacks outside of Kashmir in the coming months.
We have informed the police officials to begin operations to ensure that no militant is able to slip in. Further, we have also told the police to keep a tab on groups such as the SIMI which act as a proxy to the Lashkar-e-Taiba," the officer said.

Two weeks back, an Intelligence Bureau alert suggested that members of the SIMI will try and avenge the killing of their men. It may be recalled that SIMI operatives had been killed in an encounter after they escaped from a jail in Bhopal.

OneIndia News