The United States-based think tank, Hudson Institute, in its latest report, has warned that Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been actively supporting the Khalistan activists in the United States, and it’s a major threat to peace in the region and the India-US relations.
The report highlights how Pakistan has nurtured the Khalistani elements under its plan to “bleeding India with a thousand cuts”.
The report asserts, “Unfortunately, the United States government has shown no interest in violence committed by Khalistan activists, even though the Khalistan campaign’s most ardent supporters are located in western countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.”
Recently, the Indian intelligence agencies found how the Khalistani elements have infiltrated the country’s ongoing farmers’ protests and completely hijacked it.
In the massive violence caused by the ‘protesting farmers’ on Republic Day in Delhi, one young Sikh died when his tractor overturned. He was a returnee from Australia.
The ISI has been using the Khalistani elements to foment trouble in India. The report says, “Cooperation between Khalistani and Kashmiri groups has become increasingly apparent in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, with Kashmiri and Khalistani activists often operating in tandem.”
The Khalistani and Kashmiri separatist groups are jointly organizing protests in many parts of the United States to express their solidarity. The Hudson report says these protests are organized with ISI’s support.
It has been a well-known fact that Pakistan has been a safe haven for the terrorists, but the United States has been ignoring it as it considers Pakistan its ally in the war against terror. The report says, “The complicated US relationship with Pakistan has probably been the cause of the US government’s reluctance to act on intelligence from India concerning Khalistan activism. In the years following 9/11, Pakistan’s role as the artery providing logistical support to the US military mission in Afghanistan took priority over its role of host to various terrorist groups.”
The report says that the United States is not making any effort to check the activities of these violent Khalistani groups. It notes, “The US government cannot afford to allow separatist movements from India, including those with ties to militant and terrorist groups, to grow unchecked among its otherwise lawabiding Sikh community. Its experience with Islamist extremist groups must serve as a template for dealing with Khalistan, and so recruitment or fundraising for militancy or “martyrdom” must not be allowed on US soil, even if the actual acts of violence are to take place far away, in India.”
The Economic Times investigation in 2018 has revealed that the Khalistani website, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), was managed out of Karachi, Pakistan.
In 2018, SFJ separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun announced the establishment of an SFJ office in Lahore.
In December 2006, a federal jury in New York had convicted a Pakistani national Khalid Awan for money and financial services to the Khalistani group ‘Khalistan Commando Force’ (KCF).
The report says, “According to the US Department of Justice, “KCF was formed in 1986 and is comprised of Sikh militants who seek to establish a separate Sikh state in the Punjab region of India. The organization has engaged in numerous assassinations of prominent Indian government officials—including the murder of Chief Minister Beant Singh of Punjab in 1995—and hundreds of bombings, acts of sabotage, and kidnappings.”
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