Rama Rao Malladi

Khalistani activists appear to be having a free run in countries like the United States, Canada and the UK.  Reports of disfiguring and graffiti on Hindu temples, anti-India slogans and even physical threats to Indian citizens and Indian diplomats have become a regular occurrence.

Strangely, there are no reports of local police acting against the perpetrators of such acts.

One such bold assault targeted the president of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Canada’s Surrey. Khalistani radicals fired 14 rounds at his residence.

Like in all recent Khalistani attacks, in this attack also, little is known about the persons behind these activities with the Police investigation being no more than a proforma exercise.  

Yet, the very same West has accused India with no proof so far of hatching plots to assassinate Khalistani separatists on their soil.

By all accounts the allegation against India is serious. And India is set to clear its name with a probe into allegations leveled by the US regarding an alleged plot to kill Hardeep Singh Pannun, while awaiting details on the killing of another Khalistani Gurpatwant Singh Nijjar in Canada.

Pannun had advised Sikhs not to travel Air India. He even held out an open threat to do ‘something’ to the Indian parliament.   Both acts are no more than terrorism in action and invite action under the anti- terrorism laws.

The Americans have not invoked the anti-terrorism law against him.  Instead, they are worried about his right to freedom though India has declared the Khalistani as a terrorist a long while ago.

Washington is busy to lay its hands on the hit man allegedly assigned to bump off Pannun. It is seeking his extradition from Czechoslovakia, where he was arrested.

While it may be a while before the final chapter is written on Nijjar saga and Pannun controversy, India has a case against the West.

For the past year or so, the separatist Khalistani movement has been clearly more active in the US, UK, and Canada than in India where it all started with the backing of Pakistan’s ISI in the 1980s and died almost a decade later.

The governments of the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance—the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—have refused to take Indian concerns about revival of Khalistani movement in their countries with any seriousness.  

Yet, it is in these Eldorados, most of the Khalistani threats have been reported.

India, particularly, its border province of Punjab has paid a heavy price for the misadventure of the Khalistanis. Punjab’s economy is shattered and is witnessing the birth of a dangerous era of drug addiction among the youth.

The drugs are smuggled into Punjab from Pakistan with the aid of ISI, the intelligence wing of the Pakistani army. Of late, drugs are dropped by drones. The ISI is primarily focused on stirring up trouble by pump priming Islamist terrorism inside India and Khalistani adventurism abroad targeted against India.

The West cannot and should not close its eyes to the ISI game plan. It must thoroughly investigate the role of the ISI in trying to revive the Khalistani movement on its soil.

If India has so readily agreed to order a probe on US charges, then why can’t the Americans do the same about an Indian request?

If the Americans agree, it might be easier to persuade the British and the Canadians to follow suit.

Pakistan is known to have been extending financial and other help in the US and some other Western countries to anti-Indian elements, including academia and think tank members.

Pakistan had gunned down an Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham, UK some four decades ago as a part of its plans to boost terrorism in Kashmir, but suffered nothing.  

Pakistan may be bankrupt but for activities against India its coffers appear overflowing. It has been clandestinely assisting the Khalistanis with money and other resources.

The so-called Sikhs for Justice ‘referendum’ received Pakistani help.

The ‘referendum’ in the US and the UK usually does not attract a large number of the Sikh diaspora but the Pakistani media goes to town in publicizing the results that are said to show a desire among the Sikhs to carve a separate and independent homeland for Sikhs out of India.

The Modi government appears to have taken in its stride the rekindling of US-Pakistan romance. There was nothing more than a muffled protest when the US ambassador in Pakistan recently visited Pakistan -held Kashmir, and called it ‘Azad Kashmir’ as Pakistanis do.

The Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir has returned from a US tour where he had talks with the three highest officials in Washington, the secretaries of state and defence and the national security advisor.

The General was treated as the virtual head of the government. This is no surprise since America was (is) a part of the A-trinity governing Pakistan (the other two ‘A’s are Army and Saudi Arabia, though not in that order).  

To keep Munir in good humour the Americans must have offered him certain lollipops, which, going by history, will eventually worry India.

Clearly, the Biden administration has decided to overlook the intense anti-US sentiments being fuelled in Pakistan after the Israel attack on Hamas as also the past record of Pakistan’s deceit during the decade of ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan.

This can be taken to mean that the US is very keen on rebuilding ties with Pakistan about which India needs to be cautious. The US allegation that India picks up targets for assassinations in foreign countries has been a big propaganda prop for Pakistan. 

It should not be difficult for the US to detect the role of Pakistan and the ISI in reviving the Khalistani movement.

Several Khalistanis escaped to Pakistan when faced with prospects of action for their subversive, anti-national activities in India. Their job is to recruit the youth in (Indian) Punjab, using the social media for motivation and backed up by money and other allurements.

In the West, the ISI could well be a major contributor to the crowds that demonstrate outside Indian missions and the men who damage and attack temples and other places. The Mirpuris (hailing from a part of Pak held Kashmir) form the bulk of protestors and agitators outside Indian missions in the UK. Their mission coincides with that of the Sikh separatists. They are obsessed with hatred for India and would not hesitate to participate in anti-India agitations.

Surely, the British police knows it but what prevents it from sharing details with India?

Like-wise, why the West, the US and Canada in particular, is shy of zeroing on the Khalistanis, who openly speak of terrorist acts against India.

The war on terrorism is not a one-way street. The West will do well to realise that there is no single global cop in the 21^st century of multi-polar world

(POREG)