Govt Designates JKGF, KTF As Terror Organisations Under UAPA; Declares Harwinder Singh Sandhu As Terrorist

The government on Friday (17 February) designated the Khalistan Tiger Force and the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force as terrorist organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Further, a Punjab resident Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda was also declared as an "individual terrorist" under the anti-terror law.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a notification said that Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF) surfaced in the year 2020 as a terrorist outfit and it draws its cadres from various proscribed terrorist organisations, such as Lashker-E-Taiba, Jaish-E-Mohammed, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jehad-E-Islami, etc.

JKGF is involved in infiltration bids, narcotics and weapon smuggling and carrying out terror attacks in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the ministry's notification said.

It added that JKGF regularly issues threats to Indian security forces and uses various social media platforms for inciting people of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorist outfits against India.

The activities of JKGF are detrimental to the national security and sovereignty of India, and the outfit is involved in terrorism and it has committed and participated in various acts of terrorism in India, the notification said.

In another notification, the MHA said that Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) came into existence in the year 2011 as an offshoot of Babbar Khalsa International, a proscribed terrorist organisation under the UAPA.

KTF is a militant outfit and it aims reviving terrorism in Punjab with a view to achieve its agenda of formation of a separate state "Khalistan" and thereby challenges the territorial integrity, unity, national security and sovereignty of India, the notification said.

It further said that KTF promotes acts of terrorism and the investigation agencies have found involvement of its cadres in various terrorist cases, including targeted killings.

The members of the KTF in India are receiving financial and logistics support including sophisticated weaponry from their foreign based handlers.

Further, KTF's current operational chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the current has been designated as a terrorist under the UAPA.

The notification added that the investigation agencies have found involvement of cadres of Khalistan Tiger Force in various terrorist cases and assassination of prominent persons.

With declaration of these two organisations as terrorist organisation, there are now total 44 designated terrorist organizations under the first schedule of UAPA, the Home Ministry said.

On terrorist designation of Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, the Home Ministry said that he has been associated with terrorist organisation Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and is presently based in Lahore, Pakistan "under the patronage of cross border agencies" and has been found involved in various terrorist activities particularly in Punjab.

Babbar Khalsa International has already been declared as a terrorist organisation under the UAPA.

The MHA said that Sandhu has direct links with Pakistan based terrorist groups and is also involved in cross border smuggling of arms, ammunition, militant hardware besides drugs in large scale.

The ministry added that Rinda remained involved in various criminal offences like murder, attempt to murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion, etc., in Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh besides being involved in several terrorist activities.

With this declaration, now there are 54 designated terrorists in the fourht schedule of UAPA, the ministry said.