India’s Sikh Militants Forming Ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani Intelligence

Via Jamestown Foundation -

The recent Mumbai attacks have once again embittered relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals of South Asia - Pakistan and India. India has given Pakistan a list of "handlers" who are believed to be based in Pakistan and were in touch with the terrorists during the attacks in Mumbai in November last year. The names (or aliases), like Wasi Zarar, Jundal, Buzurg and Kafa, were specified in the dossier that India gave to Pakistan on January 5 (India Today [New Delhi], January 6). After evidence emerged of the involvement of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), India has brought up the list again, making it a test case for the Pakistan establishment to prove its much-vaunted anti-terror credentials. The list carries the names of 20 individuals India wants Pakistan to extradite. Apart from some known leaders of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the list also carries the names of five Indian Sikhs belonging to the separatist Khalistani movement (the name Khalistan, “Land of the Pure,” refers to the would-be independent Sikh state). At the top of the list is Lakhbir Singh Rode, who heads the pro-Khalistan International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) and is wanted in relation to cases of arms smuggling and conspiracy to attack government and political leaders in Delhi, as well as inciting religious hatred in Punjab. The Sikh militant leader lives in and operates out of Lahore, Pakistan (BBC; December 2, 2008; India Today, December 2, 2008). There are indications that the ISYF has developed strong links with LeT and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) over the last two decades.

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The ISYF aims to promote Sikh philosophy and the establishment of an independent Sikh nation. Since the Amritsar attack in 1984, its members have been engaged in violent attacks, assassinations, and bombings, mostly targeting Indian political figures (The Economic Times [New Delhi], February 13, 2004). Leaders of the ISYF believe India’s mainstream politicians are responsible for the plight of the Sikh nation. Sikh terrorism has been sponsored by expatriate and Indian Sikh groups who want to carve out an independent Sikh state from Indian territory.

Following a decade of violence, the Sikh separatist movement grew calm after 1993. That may be changing - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who himself belongs to the Sikh community, recently suggested that Sikh separatists based outside India are trying to revive militancy in the state of Punjab. Prime Minister Singh has said that there is "credible information" to show that the remnants of separatist groups in Canada, the UK, Germany, and Pakistan are regrouping (BBC, New Delhi, March 6, 2008). In recent years, active groups included the ISYF, the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Dal Khalsa, and the Bhindranwala Tiger Force.

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While many of us are looking and waiting for Pakistan to take creditable actions against terrorist groups (LeT) in the region...it is important to always remember that terrorism isn't just Pakistan's problem...it is everyone's problem.

Each nation in the world has it very own terrorism threats (both internal and external) and terrorism landscape. We must never lose sight of this...