ISI trying to revive Punjab militancy?

The security analysts in the government are looking at Pakistan ISI's game plan to revive Sikh militancy in Punjab in Monday's terror attack.

"We know that ISI is desperate to revive Punjab militancy to open two fronts besides Jammu and Kashmir. We have been receiving continuous intercepts and human intelligence on these counts for the last one year. It has also revived its assets in UK and Canada for this reason besides hosting Khalistani terrorists in Pakistan," said sources.

However, the terrorists employed to cross over were chosen from the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) stock by the ISI, as the agency was perhaps unable to rope in Sikh terrorists.

The initial examination of 2 GPS found from Gurdaspur – which the NTRO is examining – shows that the three terrorists crossed over into India through a riverine gaps on river Ravi close to the intermittent border of Jammu and Punjab and had no other targets except Dinanagar.

The Union home ministry had broached the subject of ISI's game plan to revive Punjab militancy in a meeting with Punjab government as early as last week where the continuous intercept based information was shared with Punjab officials.

Two former RAW chiefs A S Dulat and Vikram Sood too have expressed concern at the events unfolding within Punjab and neighbouring Jammu.

According to Dulat, situation in Kashmir is fast turning back to 1996 and reports from Punjab were also not so encouraging. "Let us not take Punjab for granted. There are signs and signals coming in abundance that attempts were being made to revive militancy and on ground also frustration creeping up is about to burst," said Dulat.

His successor in RAW Sood also pointed out that early in May in Gurdaspur, a Shiv Sanik was shot at, while playing volleyball. The assailants raised pro-Khalistani slogans. Recently at a rally organised by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, pro-Khalistan slogans were raised.

Sources said that during the interrogation, Babbar Khalsa's Jagtar Singh Tara and Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh alias Mintoo, the two arrested Khalistani militants, had confirmed that ISI wants to open a new front in Punjab.

"It seems that the ISI had reached an agreement with Sikh terror groups - Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) and Babbar Khalsa Force (BKF) that for the initial push Pakistan will provide fidayeens who would require some logistical local support. However, It is very unlikely that in this case received the fidayeens managed to receive any local support," added a source.

The security agencies are also probing in the angle if Punjab's drug cartel provided the tree terrorists any logistic help in crossing through the riverine border.

According to Dulat first impression about Gurdaspur incident was that terrorists have used the smugglers route, which Sikh militants had been using in the past. He said this was a favourite route of the Khalistan Commando Force chief Wassan Singh Zaffarwal.

On the incident itself, Dulat said his experience has been whenever India and Pakistan warm up, there are spoilers. "Things in Kashmir Valley are also not looking good. We are just managing Kashmir and don't know when it will go out of hand," said the former RAW chief.

Pakistan hosts three Sikh militant groups. Babbar Khalsa and the Paramjeet Singh Panjwar faction of the Khalistan Commando Force consist mostly of ageing militants while the Khalistan Zindbad Force led by Ranjeet Singh Neeta, a native of Jammu and Kashmir, has relatively younger members.

But, both the intelligence czars felt that the groups were not in a position to revive militancy. Dulat, however, warned that it will not take much time for the militancy to take roots again, in case frustration and desperation creeping within Punjab is not arrested.