Intel alert: ISI planning to revive militancy in Punjab

Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune news Service
New Delhi, June 3

To revive Sikh militancy in Punjab, Pakistan has worked out a “deeply classified plan”, say Intelligence agencies in a report submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Officials in the North Block are now trying to ascertain their number as well as  location. Sources in the MHA, citing the report, claimed that Khalistan activists residing in Canada had been assigned the task of reviving militancy in Punjab under “Project Harvesting Canada”. Some had been asked to target retired police officers and Army veterans to incite violence in the state, they said.

Read: Punjab rejects intel reports on ISI bid to revive militancy 

Noting that the MHA had been taking such Intelligence reports “very seriously”, the sources said it was a fact that Pakistan’s ISI had been helping Khalistan activists in their designs to foment unrest in North India.

They said the MHA had directed the agencies to ascertain the number of Khalistan activists the Inter-Services Intelligence had roped in  and the “specific location of their networks”. It is also reported the Inter-Services Intelligence has been circulating “several fake documents” related to India’s armed forces.

The Inter-Services Intelligence is reportedly seeking the help of separatist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) to create dissent. “The Inter-Services Intelligence  is hatching a plot with the SFJ to instigate Sikh youth against India. It was earlier associated with Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa for training,” the sources added.

Codename ‘Project Harvesting Canada’

• According to Intelligence reports, Canada-based Khalistani terrorists have been assigned the task of reviving Sikh militancy in Punjab under “Project Harvesting Canada”
• Certain identified terrorists have been asked to target retired police officers and Army veterans in India to incite violence in Punjab
• Indian authorities are making efforts to ascertain the number of terrorists roped in by the ISI so far along with their respective locations