Khalistan Zindabad Force

The Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), a proscribed group under The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, aims to establish a ‘sovereign Khalistan state’.

Although the exact cadre strength and organisational structure of the KZF is not known, it is largely comprised of Jammu-based Sikhs.

Ranjit Singh Neeta heads the KZF. Originally a resident of the Sumbal Camp area in Jammu, Neeta is reportedly now based somewhere in Pakistan. One of the 20 terrorists that India wants Pakistan to deport, Neeta began his career as a small-time criminal and subsequently developed links with smugglers in the R.S. Pora and Samba areas. His name figures in at least six First Information Reports filed after bomb blasts on trains and buses running between Jammu and Pathankot between 1988 and 1999. He is also alleged to have been involved in the killing of Deputy Superintendent of Police Devinder Sharma in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir in October 2001.

Neeta's second in command, Amritpal Singh Romi, was killed in an encounter in 2000.

Khuram Masih alias Manjit Singh alias Kala alias Akaal, a Christian-turned-Sikh and a close associate of Neeta, was shot dead by the police during an encounter at village Dablehar in the RS Pura Sector of Jammu on December 28, 2000. Reportedly a ‘hit-man’ for Neeta, Khuram Masih was involved in at least 20 explosions in Jammu, Punjab and New Delhi.

Ravinder Kaur alias Tutu, another leading member of the KZF, was arrested from Rudrapur in the State of Uttar Pradesh on March 30, 1998. Ravinder, an alleged ‘human bomb’, was wanted in connection with two bus bomb blasts at Pathankot in Punjab during April and June 1997, in which nine people had died. Ravinder, sister-in-law of the KZF chief Ranjit Singh Neeta, was married to Nirmal Singh Nimma, who was acquitted in the General Vaidya assassination case. Ravinder got involved in terrorist activities after her sister married Neeta in 1990.

On July 6, 2005, a day after the failed terrorist attack on the make-shift Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, the Jammu and Kashmir police is working on inputs that the KZF outfit is making attempts to regroup in Jammu, according to Indian Express. Official sources said that many of the KZF activists against whom cases were filed in the courts have been enlarged on bail and they are seeking to regroup. Inspector General of Police (Jammu), S. P. Vaid, while confirming that the KZF was making attempts to regroup said, "We are making efforts that the KZF does not become successful in reviving itself here. Many of the activists were involved in different violence related activities."

Area of Operation and Linkages

While Punjab, Jammu, Delhi are the main areas of operation, the outfit is also reported to have operated from Nepal in the past. For instance, the Delhi Police (DP) claimed to have neutralised a Nepal module of the outfit with the arrest of three cadres on August 24, 2000. While addressing a press conference on that day, Ajai Raj Sharma, the then DP Commissioner, said Neeta, who was in Lahore, had established a powerful base at Bir Ganj in Nepal and that Maan Behanji and Lakhbir Singh were the main organisers of this base. Earlier, in November 1998, Lakhbir Singh, an activist of the KZF, was arrested from a hotel in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu along with 20 kg of RDX and timing devices. On interrogation, he is alleged to have identified three Pakistani embassy officials with whom he had liaised, one of them identified as Asim Saboor, according to an Asiaweek report of April 21, 2000. The bases in Nepal were reportedly set up by the KZF with support from the ISI during the phase of Punjab militancy.

While Pakistan continues to host the KZF and its 'chief', Ranjit Singh Neeta, the outfit is also reported to have activists and sympathisers in Britain, Germany, Canada and some other European countries.

Apart from being linked to the ISI, the KZF has close links with several terrorist groups active in Jammu and Kashmir, including the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). Explaining such linkages, Sarabjit Singh, the then Punjab Police chief, said on November 14, 1999, that the KZF always had links with Kashmiri terrorists as it comprised Sikhs from the Jammu region.

Daily Excelsior reported on November 15, 2000 that "While the KZF still has much interest in hitting at Punjab, the ISI, intelligence reports say, has prevailed upon it to focus its attention on assignments given to its cadres in Jammu and Kashmir. Fresh and vigorous strikes in Poonch district (where Khalistan Zindabad Force has pockets of influence) and in other areas of the Jammu region, including the city of Jammu, according to the calculations purported to have been made by the ISI, would be more useful to it (ISI)."

The group has, intermittently, attempted to re-group and operationalise its subversive capacities in Punjab, Jammu, Delhi and elsewhere in India. However, a consistent loss of cadres and leadership has led to the KZF being marginalized although it retains its operational capacities.

Incidents

• February 15, 2008: Three KZF militants, Sukhdev Singh, Satbir Singh and Purushottam Singh were sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment by a court in the national capital New Delhi for a bomb blast in the Kailash Hotel in Paharganj area on March 13, 2000 in which three persons were wounded.

• May 3, 2007: Intelligence agencies reportedly said that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, are trying to revive militancy in Punjab through sympathisers of Sikh militant groups like the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) and Khalistan Commando Force (KCF). Information has reportedly been sent to the Punjab Police about the plans to target towns of Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Pathankot region. Instructions have also been given to monitor the activities of sympathisers of BKI-Hawara, ISYF-Rode, KZF- Neeta and KCF, who are sending funds through hawala (illegal money transfers) to "re-launch their separatist movement."

• June 18, 2006: Satnam Singh alias Satta, a terrorist of the Pakistan-based KZF, confessed during interrogation that he carried out the bomb blasts at the bus terminal in Jalandhar on April 28, 2006, on the instructions of the outfit’s chief Ranjit Singh Neeta.

• June 26, 2005: Three KZF activists, identified as Hardeep alias Badal, Sukhwinder alias Pappa, and Harpreet alias Ricky, are arrested from the Jammu region. According to the police, two pistols, a country-made gun and some ammunition were recovered from their possession.

• April 27, 2005: A court in Jammu acquits an KZF activist in an illegal weapons possession case for lack of evidence. The police had arrested KZF ‘commander’ Balbir Singh on September 27, 1997, while roaming under suspicious circumstances on the banks of the Chenab. A mouser along with a magazine and 20 live cartridges besides a rifle and 66 cartridges were recovered from him.

• February 10, 2004: Attarjit Singh, a KZF cadre and reportedly a professional border crosser, is arrested by the Jammu Police for his alleged links to the January 21, 2004-escape of Jagtar Singh Hawara, an accused in the Beant Singh assassination case, from the Burail Jail.

• April 15, 2002: Gurdev Singh alias Mantoo, a KZF terrorist, is arrested from Jammu along with one pistol, one magazine and 15 live cartridges. Gurdev, involved in criminal activities in and around Jammu City, came in contact with an associate of KZF chief Neeta in October 2001.

• April 7, 2002: Trans-border narcotics and arms smuggler Virender Sharma, a close associate of Ranjit Singh Neeta, is arrested from Jammu.

• April 6, 2002: Three KZF terrorists were arrested in Jammu along with a tonne of plastic explosive and several assault rifles, which they had planned to use on a series of targets in the city.

• April 3, 2002: The Jammu and Kashmir Police arrests Amrik Singh, ‘operational commander’ of the KZF, and his associate Gurdev Singh.

• December 28, 2000: Khuram Masih alias Manjit Singh alias Kala alias Akaal, a Christian-turned-Sikh and a close associate of Neeta, is shot dead along with another KZF cadre, Iqbal alias Balbir Singh and Mohammed Naveed Tahir of the Islamic Front by the police during an encounter at village Dablehar in the RS Pura Sector of Jammu.

• November 21, 2000: Mohammed Alam, a close associate of Mohinder Singh alias Bittu, a constable of the Special Operations Group and a front ranking KZF cadre, is arrested from the Kathua district in Jammu.

• November 18, 2000: Prince and Kala Gujjar, two local harbourers of KZF terrorists, are arrested from the Kathua district.

• November 9, 2000: Manmohan Singh alias Sonu, chief priest at the Bakshi Nagar Gurdwara and a front ranking KZF activist, is arrested by the Jammu Police.

• August 24, 2000: The Delhi Police neutralises a Nepal module of the KZF with the arrest of three cadres who were involved in several bomb blasts in Delhi, Punjab and Jammu. Lakhbir Singh, alias Baba, Manpreet Kaur alias Maan Behanji, sister-in-law of the KZF chief Ranjit Singh Neeta, and Surjeet Singh were arrested from the Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) Rakabganj Sahib along with 32 kilograms of RDX and other explosives.

• March 25, 2000: Three KZF cadres, identified as Ravinder Singh, Tajinder Singh and Kamaldeep Singh, are arrested from Jammu.

• March 18, 2000: Three KZF activists, Sukhvinder Singh alias Mithu, Satvir Singh alias Sunny and Parshotum Singh alias Kala, are arrested in New Delhi.

• March 17, 2000: The Jammu Police arrest a suspected activist of the Khalistan Zindabad Force, identified as Kirtan Singh alias Bitta, who was the mastermind behind the bomb blasts on board the Sealdah Express and Pooja Express trains. Police also recovered one Chinese-made revolver, four magazines, 30 rounds, two AK magazines with 50 rounds and fake currency of Rupees 40,000.

• March 1, 2000: Union Home Minister L. K. Advani discloses in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) that the KZF was one of the eight Sikh extremist outfits operating in the country.

• February 10, 2000: The KZF is alleged to have exploded a bomb on board the Sealdah Express train at Supwal village in the Vijaypur area of Jammu killing five persons and injuring 20 others.

• November 11, 1999: At least 14 people are killed and 55 others sustain injuries in a KZF-engineered bomb blast on board the Jammu-Delhi Pooja Express train.

• April 1, 1999: Kathua Police arrests Ramzan Khan and Basant Singh alias Geelu, two suspected KZF activists, during raids conducted at Nagrota on a tip off given by Naseeb Singh, a KZF cadre who had been arrested on January 23, 1999. Police recovered a revolver, one double barrel gun, three rounds and other ammunition from the possession of arrested suspects.

• March 28, 1999: A Khalistan Zindabad Force activist, identified as Keval Singh Rajput, is arrested from Jammu.

• January 23, 1999: Naseeb Singh, a front ranking KZF cadre hailing from the Digiana area of Jammu, is arrested from Kathua. Naseeb Singh was a close associate of former KZF chief Mohinder Singh Pappi and another ‘commander’ Gurmeet Singh alias Manga, both of whom were killed in encounters in Punjab.

• November 1998: Lakhbir Singh, an activist of the KZF, is arrested from a hotel in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu along with 20 kg of RDX and timing devices.

• October 23, 1998: The Jammu Kashmir High Court (Jammu Bench) dismisses a petition filed by Ajit Singh, father of hardcore militant Sulkhan Singh, and KZF activists challenging the detention of Sulkhan under Public Safety Act for two years. In the dismissal order, Justice G. D. Sharma observed that it is established that the detenue is a hardcore motivated militant and his remaining at large is highly hazardous for the security of the State and maintenance of public order. According to the grounds of detention, in the month of April 1997 Sulkhan Singh met with Punjab militants Attar Jeet Singh and Jagmohan Singh who motivated him to become an active KZF cadre and get training in handling arms and ammunition after going to Pakistan.