July has been a tough month. Besides the bombings in London, the shooting of an innocent man in London, the terrible bombing at a resort in Egypt, and the ongoing bombings occurring daily in Iraq, there have also been important developments involving terrorism that is home-grown to India.
The news is both good and bad. The good news is, Indian Express reports that the Punjab police have arrested more than 60 members of a Sikh militant group called Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), many of them with large caches of arms and explosives, including 53 kilograms of RDX and PETN (as specified here). The arrests took place mainly in Chandigarh and Delhi. The key arrest might be that of Jagtar Singh Hawara (pictured left; photo from Frontline), who masterminded the murder of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh some years ago. Hawara is clearly a brutal man bent on killing — a sort of criminal mastermind (he committed his first murder — of a Sikh Granthi — at the age of 15). He had escaped from a Chandigarh prison in February 2004, when he dug a 60 foot tunnel over several months that prison authorities claim they didn’t notice. He is, perhaps most importantly, the ringleader of BKI in India; we should all be glad this guy is behind bars again. Hopefully this time he will stay there.
The bad news is, there may be more terrorists as well as explosives out there. Since the BKI has been quiet since 1997-1998, when it initiated a bombing campaign in Punjab, Indian police hoped that the organization had gone defunct. Its current global leadership is based in Pakistan, where the leader, Wadhawa Singh is reportedly ailing. But the current arrests tell a different story. Not only is BKI not defunct, the police readily admit there are still known members as well as an alarming quantity of explosive material in India that has not been recovered. The current wave of arrests occurred in the wake of arrests of two suspects after the May 22 movie theater bombings in Delhi (the “Jo Bole So Nihaal bombings”). Terrorists identified in the press as Balwinder and Jaspal were arrested after those attacks, on May 31 (see Manish’s link-filled post here). Then Jagtar Singh Hawara was arrested on June 7. His associate Hardeep Kaur (yes, a woman) was also arrested; her diaries and notes led police to the large terrorist ring that has just been rounded up. Two other BKI members, Paramjit Singh aka “Baiju,” and Kamaljit Singh, aka “Manna,” were arrested a week ago (see The Hindu). They were carrying about .5 KG of RDX with them at the time of arrest. At least a few of the people arrested are related to Hawara.
There is a follow-up on Hawara in today’s Indian Express, which makes for disturbing reading (I would also recommend this article on Hawara in Frontline last year). It seems he and his associates were given special treatment by the police at the Burail jail in Chandigarh, from which they escaped last year. Not only were they allowed to have a TV and a servant (!), they routinely met other known terrorists, and even a Pakistani spy in the same prison. They were also allowed to keep a cellphone, which they eventually used to coordinate their escape. Moreover, they shamelessly worked the system to continue their arms-collecting habits; at one point, the CIA (not itself a pillar of competency these days) called Indian authorities to tell them about a pound of RDX that Hawara and his men had managed to acquire while in prison. The RDX had been in boxes of sweets that had actually gone straight through the jail superintendent’s office, uninspected.
Not very inspiring, is it? This image of a completely incompetent, bribe-happy Indian prison system is rather different from the hardcore dungeon I had in my head.
Hopefully, Hawara will be watched more vigilantly this time, eh? (Some tips from a friendly English professor: try separating him from his friends. Check his cell occasionally to see if he is digging an escape tunnel. And no cell phones.) Fortunately, Hawara’s associates are incredibly incompetent; they seem not to have mastered either the code of silence, or effective concealment of information. All of the people arrested in the past few weeks seem to be talking to police — often openly confessing their crimes — and their videotaped interrogations are being shown to reporters. Moreover, they’ve written down the names of all their collaborators in handy little notebooks.
The Punjab and Delhi police have been remarkably effective at finding a large number of BKI terrorists in short order after only one bombing; let’s hope they can finish the job.
Well the good news is that they caught these scumbags – now they should stay vigilant, if the Punjab Police had gone to sleep it is a wake up call.
Here is an article about how Khalistani terrorists murdered left wingers and Marxists in Punjab who opposed their fascist movement
i better quit w/ the sardar jokes and ‘baara bajge sardar ji’ stuff….i don’t know who i’m messing w/
Lovin
You should quit with those jokes anyway because they make you look stupid when you tell them 😉
Lovin,
No, no, keep joking.
Incidentally, some of the people arrested in the current wave are clean-shaven. In the old days, the BKI only admitted people with full turban and beard.
Now the ideology part has worn thin, as the Khalistan movement has vanished from Punjab. They now seem primarily motivated by a desire to inflict damage, and they are willing to use anyone who comes their way.
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I hate that word… Am I somehow dirty b/c I keep a beard? I’d much rather refer to them as “bald faced.”
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It is just nihilism and pure gangsterism – the people of Punjab have no time for these people
Lovin
You should quit with those jokes anyway because they make you look stupid when you tell them 😉
wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today eh?
the only time i even say this joke is when this guy I play basketball w/ is there. When he catches fire that’s the joke we say and he laughs as well….
anyways man, relax, you get a little too fired up too easily. I don’t flip out when anyone makes fun of me for being a total ABCD.
Lovin
Naaah mate, I always JUMP out of bed every glorious morning, I never hit the wrong side, always skip and sing and dance and whistle and love life, I dont even know what grumpy means, dont worry about it though 😉
Now the ideology part has worn thin, as the Khalistan movement has vanished from Punjab
i’ve always wondered how India managed to get the Khalistan movement off track and integrate Sikh society back into the indian fold after so many atrocities were committed against them post Indira Gandhi assassination…could you or anyone expand on that to an ABCD like me? (seriously)
Lovin,
The bara bajge joke has deeper roots than the ABCD joke. Obviously, the sardar you share this joke with doesn’t care because he probably doesn’t know the history of it. But just in case you’re interested in finding out why most sardars would be extremely offended by it – check out this link. (By the way, I don’t encourage you to check out the rest of that website, it was just the only thing I could find on a quick google search)
What is unfortunate and more worrisome is continued support of Khalistani movement OUTSIDE India. The Gurudwara here in Fremont still has pro-Khalistani slogans and photos of “matryrs”. It is not rare to see “FREE KHALISTAN. INDIA GET OUT OF PUNJAB” stickers.
Even more worrisome is second/third generation Sikhs falling into this trap. At work I had a heated argument with this Sikh kid who seems committed to the Khalistani cause.
But anyway ground reality is different and with asylum cases being dismissed regularly now (except 9th circuit court which STILL grants asylum to Sikhs), Khalistan movement is a dying movement existing only in UK,US, Canada Gurudwaras.
I imagine, though I am no expert on the matter and I’m sure someone more qualified/experienced in the matter will correct me if I’m wrong, it’s the same reason there hasn’t been a Indian-grown Muslim terrorist. Provide economic opportunity to a wide swath of people, allow a degree of religious autonomy (SGPC), and throw in a dash of political autonomy and oila- peace. Well relative peace at least. Why waste your time with Khalistan when you can get a great job and have decent access to education. In addition it’s tough to gather recruits with a we’re oppressed line of victim-hood when the PM is Manmohan. Jai Hind!
P-JAG
The Khalistani movement is kept alive by the Immigration attornies who rake in thousands of dollars promising asylum to illegal immigrants.
Just look at any Punjabi newspaper in N.America and UK and you can see ads of all these thugs promising asylum.
Due to action of these few all Indian have to undergo humiliation of being viewed as potential illegal immigrant/asylum seeker in European airports.
Lovin,
I would second what other people are saying, and add a few more points.
1- It was never that widespread amongst ordinary Sikhs. There was a brief spike in pro-Khalistan feeling after 1984, but it was more emotional than anything else. It’s remained visible in the diaspora much longer than it did in India (i.e., the bumper stickers you see at numerous Gurdwaras, including Fremont, El Sobrante, and even Philadelphia), but even much of that is empty posturing, blowhards blowing steam.
2- The militants turned out to be gangsters and thugs. Their Taliban-like ideology was matched by their Taliban-like tolerance for money-making criminal activities. With the kidnappings, bribery, and internecine gang-wars, they made themselves pretty unpopular during the years they were dominant in Punjab.
3- The army implemented a brutal crackdown in Punjab, declaring martial law, and shooting terrorists on sight in a series of extrajudicial “encounters,” some of which looked pretty questionable. Moreover, a lot of innocent people got killed in the crossfire (we’re talking tens of thousands of people). In the course of the crackdown, many Khalistanis — and even, in some cases, their families — were simply wiped out. As many as two thousand suspected militants were killed in police detention and silently cremated. (See Ensaaf, the Ensaaf news blog, and the documentary evidence compiled at PunjabJustice.org.
In the face of that juggernaut, most people with strong sympathies for the cause either left India or learned to shut the hell up.
As to whether the government’s anti-democratic tactics were justified, that is also a debate in itself.
thanks to all for the info. I agree that for some reason, some Sikh immigrants to the US and Canada have stronger pro-Khalistan opinions than they do elsewhere. Part of me believes that such grand scale causes give some of these people an inflated sense of worth or belonging or individualism somehow, but I really don’t know. i’m just glad at least there is peace now and India still stands up in teh face of the world as the only TRUE democracy out there (here in the US we have nice little rules like ‘no one born outside the US can be Prez, but Sonia Gandhi, an Italian, won the elections not too long ago)
There are only a smattering of Khalistani Gurdwaras in England – out of 400 Gurdwaras less than ten I reckon – as Amardeep says, blowhards.
And, well, a barking chihuahua makes a bit of noise.
Several years back some “Sikh”(?!) gangs were in the news for smashing storefronts and trashing up some BC streets. An attorney, interviewed on TV vented against these goons and what they were doing to his town. He later spoke out against the Khalistani separatists and their activities on Canadian soil. He was beat up viciously with an iron rod for this. All this while he’s not budged from his stance. Ujjal Dosanjh, has gone on to become an MP, the BC Premier, and is now the federal minister for Health. If the Sikh population didnt support him or his views – he wouldnt be there. QED.
what is going on in vancouver, i was just there and thought it was one of the most peaceful places w/ the nicest people?
My parents just came back from there this weekend and are now thinking of moving there permanently from NY. It is that nice. Apparently they are fighting a drug problem and there a lot of sardhar gangs involved. Just like any other city but in Vancouver Sikhs are running the show where say Cubans are running the stuff in Miami. (Ignore the gross Cuban generalization which is based on no data whatsoever- but you get the point)
P-JAG
the scenery in vancouver is amazing…(sigh) well at least i guess i got my wish of indians making news in things other than spelling bees 🙁
Amardeep,
You left out the most important player: K.P.S. Gill. He was the police chief responsible for the end of terrorism in punjab. We need more people like Gill and Guiliani.
I never understood why sikhs were upset about operation bluestar (for those unfamiliar, it’s the operation name for the indian army entering the amritsar temple in 1984 to clear out terrorists like bhindranwale). I see a hypocrisy here. The sanctitity of the amritsar temple was violated when terrorists like bhindranwale took refuge in the temple. These cowardly terrorists routinely killed innocent people (if you grew up in 1980’s, news items of terrorists stopping a bus in punjab and separating hindu passengers and mowing them down at point blank occurred with sickening regularity) and ran back to the temple knowing that the police cannot pursue them into the temple. The army, by flushing out the terrorists, restored the sanctitiy of the temple.
i really, really dislike khalistanis. as far as i’m concerned they are ruining our community. they never fail to tie every single issue into their obsession. little do they realize no one else cares nearly as much as them. if anything they are ruining the religion they say they care about
however, views like sidharths will never get play in our community.
one; bhinderwale never asked anyone before he went into the Golden Temple. almost all sikhs had no say in that. two, indira gandhi created binderwale in the first place. three, no matter what, Operation Blue Star was obscene. four, the dehli riots and the subsequent discrimination against Sikhs was a true black mark on indian history. a gross violation of the rights of Sikhs from pillar to post. no one was spared.
a sikh can be against khalistan but i doubt many could be for the repression of the 80’s. it was a black mark in indian history, no ifs ands or buts.
Are you serious? Are you really f***ing serious?
I didn’t know sanctity could be restored by destroying sacred scriptures and killing innocent Sikhs. If India was really so “holy,” Amnesty International would be allowed in to share India’s “holiness” with the world.
Dr. Singh:
An anecdote and a question.
At my university recently, I got into a bit of an argument with a Khalistani Sardar–a resident at the hospital affiliated with the university’s medical school–over his rather vocal championing of Kashmiri Muslim secessionists. Indeed, his car sports a prominent sticker w/ an Indian map absent J&K and Punjab.
What is the extent of support for Kashmiri Muslim secession among Khalistanis in particular ? And among the general Sikh population here (America) ?
sonia:
lovin overdoes his praise for India, to be sure. And Operation Bluestar ought not to have happened–it was a mistake, morally and military. But I don’t think it can underwrite an inference to systematic malice towards Sikhs on the part of the Govt. For all its many faults, India is recognizably democratic.
As for Amnesty et al., well I think it long ago ditched its admirable non-political mission to highlight human rights abuses everywhere, without favor to one or another side. Certainly its coverage on J&K–something I regrettably know a lot about–is disgraceful. I find its selective outrage nauseous. Given this politicization, I think GOI’s stance on allowing Amnesty to visit various places is quite defensible.
And those who are fans of Amnesty et al., please spare me citation of ‘CYA’ reports/quotes to ‘prove’ that Amnesty et al. are impartial chroniclers of human rights abuse. The acid test is to see which sorts of rights abuses, against whom, etc. which are relentlessly spotlighted by these organizations.
Kumar
Kumar,
its not up to you to let sikhs know what they went through in the 80’s. ask them and many will have plenty to say
a sikh can be against khalistan but i doubt many could be for the repression of the 80’s. it was a black mark in indian history, no ifs ands or buts.
agreed, that was really sad and I remember even as a 9 yr old kid that I couldn’t believe what was going on. I hope that never happens again.
raju:
“…its not up to you to let sikhs know what they went through in the 80’s…”
Hey, here’s a novel idea for you to mull. Read before you post: I’ve not written anything about how Sikhs should or shouldn’t feel. My post related a Khalistani view that I found worrisome, so I asked Dr. Singh how popular it is among the Khalistanis and Sikhs in general. You know, I “…ask[ed]…” in the hope that he would “…have plenty to say…”.
You’re not suggesting, surely, that only Sikhs have the right to opinions about the conduct of the GOI during the counter-insurgency, do you? Or, only Sikhs have the right to an opinion about Kashmir (&Punjab)?
That’s a manifestly absurd view, with anti-democratic implications, one I’d like to see you justify. By this sort of ‘logic’ only I, a Kashmiri Pandit, had the right to express an opinion on Kashmir in my argument with that 2nd gen. diaspora Khalistani twit.
Oh, btw, expressing an opinion on such matters doesn’t mean necessarily abandoning empathy for someone who may not agree with that opinon.
Kumar
Kumar,
Sorry for the delayed response — actually I don’t know the answer to your question.
Nowadays I rarely see any of the people I used to know with those kinds of views, and I frankly haven’t kept up with their take on what’s happening in Kashmir. You might try the Sikh Bloggers list at SikhWiki. There are some interesting voices there, though obviously I don’t endorse the views etc etc.
Dr. Singh:
Thanks for the reply. I’ll check out the link you mentioned.
Kumar
To open-minded people : here’s the article with ONLY facts to read on: http://pr.sikhsangat.com/
The Sikh Coalition points out confessions may be coerced.
—
I sent a message to SM requesting that they post news about this report by ENSAAF: http://www.ensaaf.org/ft-report.html. It directly contradicts the disturbing assertions of fact that Prof. Amardeep Singh (who unfortunately has the same name as me) made in the following post: http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/001893.html.
As someone who has researched and worked with the victims of state violence in Punjab, I was deeply disappointed that Prof. Singh had a stage from which to make assertions of fact (in this case that Sikhs had engaged in terrorism) that: a) came from the most dubious of sources; and b) have the effect of defaming a substantial portion of the brown community.
As I wrote to the folks at the newstips address, I truly enjoy SMÂ’s posts about neat events and also the occasional exchange of ideas on matters of substance. I think however that SM posters should tread carefully when making statements of fact that come from dubious sources and alienate segments of our community.
I’m not sure SM’s posters understand how raw the wounds remain from the worst periods of torture in Punjab (note I write “worst periods” because torture still remains as ENSAAF’s report chronicles). Perhaps the period of protest and effigy burning in Delhi this summer can give you some insight into the pain that still exists. Unlike the suffering of the victims of the Delhi pogroms in 1984, the torture meted out to the rural victims of state violence in Punjab has not been acknowledged by any substantial segment of the Indian community. Most of India and the Indian elite consider those tens of thousands of victims to be either terrorists or terrorist supporters who got what they deserved. Their families, already brutalized beyond comprehension, live as pariahs. The police who engaged in the torture of their family member’s are hailed as national heroes.
The news of the human rights report that I request SM post, is another in a now voluminous number of reports that demonstrate that the assertions of fact that come from people like Prof. Singh are all too often fabricated while the victim endures electric shock to genitals or endures watching the torture of a loved one. These confession of “terrorism” are confessions at the point of the gun. What disturbs me is that Professor Singh could so flippantly and lightly endorse the Punjab PoliceÂ’s story (for example – “All of the people arrested in the past few weeks seem to be talking to police — often openly confessing their crimes — and their videotaped interrogations are being shown to reporters. Moreover, theyÂ’ve written down the names of all their collaborators in handy little notebooks”) when he should know better.
I was disturbed that Prof. Singh had a forum from which to make assertions of fact that are so ignorant of these realities. The fact that he is a Sikh who wholeheartedly bought the government line, likely gave those who responded to his post the wherewithal to engage in the disturbing gang mentality condemnation of the supposed terrorists who ENSAAFÂ’s report demonstrates are often innocent victims of politicized torture.
In the future, I would again request that SMÂ’s leaders/posters tread carefully before making assertions of fact that come from dubious sources and have the effect of defaming and alienating a substantial segment of the brown community.
Amar
Amardeep Singh Legal Director The Sikh Coalition 396 Broadway, Suite 701 New York, New York 10013