The Intelligence Bureau (IB), on Tuesday, briefed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on inputs related to the evolution of a quid pro quo agreement between pro-Khalistan and Inter-Services Intelligence-backed (ISI) militant outfits forged in the Kashmir valley over the last decade, it has been reliably learnt.
While the Punjab Police officially denied the involvement of pro-Khalistan forces in the Gurdaspur siege, intelligence sources told The Hindu they had reason to believe otherwise.
According to an IB official, the MHA was briefed about the likeness of Monday’s attack to the massacre of 35 Sikh families in Chatti Singhpora near Anantnag in March 2000, which saw a group of 20 militants wearing Army fatigues forcibly removing residents from their homes on the pretext of a checking exercise before spraying bullets on them.
“Following the attack, the pro-Khalistan forces and members of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, LeT, sat across the table to bury the hatchet and decided to work in tandem. Several such meetings to iron out differences occurred in the years 2005, 2010 and most recently on the heels of the Kathua attack,” said a source.
The attack, according to sources in the IB, was part of a plot hatched jointly by the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) in association with the Kashmir Tanzeem of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and “seemed to have been four years in the making”. For the second day running, frantic communication ensued between the IB, the special cell, paramilitary intelligence units and the Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police in an attempt to connect the Gurdaspur siege to the dead-ended Ambala Arms Haul of 2011.
On October 12, 2011, the Delhi Police special cell and the Punjab Police had stumbled onto a vehicle laden with five kilograms of RDX, apparently meant for transportation to the Capital for the execution of a terror plot, at the Ambala Cantonment.
A source in the special cell said the anti-terror unit had sought circumstantial information to examine its links with the Ambala Arms haul from the IB over the coming days.
MHA briefed on pro-Khalistan link: The Hindu - Mobile edition
While the Punjab Police officially denied the involvement of pro-Khalistan forces in the Gurdaspur siege, intelligence sources told The Hindu they had reason to believe otherwise.
According to an IB official, the MHA was briefed about the likeness of Monday’s attack to the massacre of 35 Sikh families in Chatti Singhpora near Anantnag in March 2000, which saw a group of 20 militants wearing Army fatigues forcibly removing residents from their homes on the pretext of a checking exercise before spraying bullets on them.
“Following the attack, the pro-Khalistan forces and members of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, LeT, sat across the table to bury the hatchet and decided to work in tandem. Several such meetings to iron out differences occurred in the years 2005, 2010 and most recently on the heels of the Kathua attack,” said a source.
The attack, according to sources in the IB, was part of a plot hatched jointly by the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) in association with the Kashmir Tanzeem of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and “seemed to have been four years in the making”. For the second day running, frantic communication ensued between the IB, the special cell, paramilitary intelligence units and the Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police in an attempt to connect the Gurdaspur siege to the dead-ended Ambala Arms Haul of 2011.
On October 12, 2011, the Delhi Police special cell and the Punjab Police had stumbled onto a vehicle laden with five kilograms of RDX, apparently meant for transportation to the Capital for the execution of a terror plot, at the Ambala Cantonment.
A source in the special cell said the anti-terror unit had sought circumstantial information to examine its links with the Ambala Arms haul from the IB over the coming days.
MHA briefed on pro-Khalistan link: The Hindu - Mobile edition
