ISI using pro-Khalistani groups to target Punjab police officers: report
22 May 2018
Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency is again engaged in the vicious job of radicalising Punjab’s youth through Pro-Khalistani groups and is planning to target Punjab police officers, according to an intelligence report.
Reports say the Pro-Khalistani groups are compiling a list of police officers who have been involved in the interrogation of arrested terrorists in Punjab.
These groups are also trying to collect details about members of the families of police officers living or studying outside India, particularly in Canada, the US, UK and Europe.
A Zee Media report citing the report submitted to the ministry of home affairs, said Pakistan's ISI, with the support of pro-Khalistani groups, is trying to radicalise the youth of Punjab. ISI is also conspiring to target some religious leaders in Punjab to destabilise the state, the report says.
Evidence gathered by intelligence agencies points towards the ISI as the key preceptor of extremism in Punjab, according to the report.
An earlier report by Zee Media had said that pro-Khalistani groups with the support from ISI were trying to hire criminals and gangsters in Punjab to create unrest in the state.
Intelligence inputs say that that pro-Khalsa group in the United Kingdom has started a campaign on the social media to appeal to the people of Punjab to join the 'struggle for Khalistan'.
These groups living in New York had organised a conference in April 2018, in which various pro-Khalistani elements from India, Germany, UK and USA had participated in the conference, the report adds.