NEW DELHI: Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), to which the three pro-Khalistan terrorists killed in UP are being linked, is a radical Sikh outfit founded in 1993 by Ranjeet Singh @ Neeta, hailing from Simbal camp in Jammu, but currently ensconced in Pakistan. The outfit’s aim is to establish a sovereign Khalistan state. It mostly drew its cadre from among radicalised Sikhs based in the Jammu region.
According to former J&K DGP S P Vaid, Neeta had developed strong links with Pakistan’s ISI during the eighties, when Punjab militancy was at its peak. He would head-hunt members of the sizeable Sikh population in the Jammu region, particularly the Simbal camp and R S Pora, and brainwash them into embracing violent extremism. In the nineties, when Neeta had struck a deal with ISI and taken shelter to Pakistan, KZF’s modus operandi was to target buses/trains plying on the roads to Jammu, Punjab or Delhi.
In 2009, the group turned to targeted killing of religious leaders in Punjab – Rashtriya Sikh Sangat chief Rulda Singh in July 2009 – and even abroad (Sant Ramanand of Dera Sachkand Ballan in Vienna). Since 2017-18, there have been intelligence inputs about Neeta using KZF cadre to target police facilities in Punjab. The UP encounter shows that the terrorists, after having carried out the recent bomb blasts at police facilities in Punjab, headed for Pilibhit where there is a sizeable Sikh community. “It’s a very positive development. Apart from putting the Khalistanis on the backfoot, the encounter highlights the good coordination between the Punjab and UP police,” a former top officer of the Punjab Police told TOI.
KZF is listed as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. With international presence and associates spread across Pakistan, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the US, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Nepal and Malaysia, it is also banned in European Union nations. These associates, as per the Union home ministry, carry out radicalisation of Sikh youths in Khalistan ideology, mostly through social media.
Neeta was declared as an individual terrorist under the UAPA in 2020. As per a gazette notification, Neeta has been aiding, abetting, spearheading, operationalising and funding terrorist activities and pushing in consignments of arms, ammunition, explosive materials laced with narcotics from across the border into India to promote terrorism and support their actions against India. An Interpol Red Corner Notice had been pending against Neeta since 2000.
Among attacks in India, in which KZF activists have been involved, are bomb explosions in two buses at Pathankot in April and June in 1997, which had killed and injured several passengers. A bomb was exploded by KZF on the Shalimar Express train in June 1998.
One of the 20 terrorists that India wants Pakistan to deport, Neeta is alleged to have been involved in the killing of DSP Devinder Sharma in Kathua in J&K in Oct 2001.
