Pakistan's ISI funding pro-Khalistan groups in India, abroad: Report

In the wake of recent violence inside Golden Temple on 31st anniversary of Operation Bluestar, a report in an international Daily said that Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is funding pro-Khalistan groups in India and abroad.

Pakistan's ISI funding pro-Khalistan groups in India, abroad: Report

New Delhi: In the wake of recent violence inside Golden Temple on 31st anniversary of Operation Bluestar, a report in an international Daily said that Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is funding pro-Khalistan groups in India and abroad.

According to intelligence inputs, the report said, a group of 22 Sikh youths who were recently found raising pro-Khalistan slogans on the periphery of the Golden Temple near Akal Takht, were instructed to take help from Pakistan to spread violence in India.

The report further said that the ISI is also funding Sikh radical outfits including Babbar Khalsa in India, US, Germany and Canada.

According to a report published by Daily Mail, the Pakistani spy agency can also use the ultras of four Khalistan terrorist groups - Ranjit Singh Meeta - headed Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Jagtar Singh Tara-headed Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), Wadhawa Singh-led Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Harminder Singh Minto-led Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) - to revive militancy and launch terror strikes in Punjab.

The ISI and the radical Sikh groups are trying to lure unemployed youths to join terror groups, it added.

Intelligence inputs, as per the report, also said that they have received information that the ISI had held two important meetings with the Sikh terrorist groups recently.

Last week, five of the protesting youths were injured in a clash inside Golden Temple with two of them sustaining head injuries.

The trouble started as the group of 22 people raised pro-Khalistan slogans, to mark the 31st anniversary of Operation Bluestar, and were joined in it by some Sikh youths who had come to the temple.

That prompted the SGPC Task Force members to disperse them and the slogan-chanting youths were forced to move outside Golden Temple, where all 22 of them were taken into preventive custody by police.

Although no link between the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and Khalistan outfits has been found so far, security agencies fear the ISI can bring them together. 

(With PTI inputs)

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