On Friday, the Centre declared two terrorist groups and one individual as terrorists for their subversive and anti-India activities. The Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF) and the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) were declared as terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), while Punjab-resident Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda was declared a terrorist.
The JKGF has been formed with cadres from terrorist organizations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. The group has been involved in infiltration bids, narcotics and weapon smuggling, terror attacks in the Union Territory, and issuing threats to security forces. The KTF aims to revive terrorism in Punjab with a view to achieve its agenda of formation of a separate state of Khalistan. The group promotes acts of terrorism and its members in India are receiving financial and logistics support, including sophisticated weaponry from their foreign-based handlers.
Harwinder Singh Sandhu, associated with the banned group Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), has been declared a terrorist for his alleged involvement in an attack on the intelligence headquarters of the Punjab Police in 2021. He has direct links with Pakistan-based terrorist groups and is involved in cross-border smuggling of arms, ammunition and militant hardware, besides drugs on a large scale.
The home ministry said the JKGF has been using various social media platforms to incite the people of Jammu and Kashmir to join terrorist outfits against India. The terror group is detrimental to national security and the sovereignty of India and is involved in terrorism. In exercise of powers conferred by the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the JKGF and KTF have been designated as terror groups. Harwinder Singh Sandhu is now the 54th individual to be designated as a terrorist by the government.
Last month, the central government had banned two proxy organizations of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad and declared four individuals as terrorists. With the addition of JKGF, KTF, and Harwinder Singh Sandhu to the list, the number of outlawed terrorist organizations has reached 44.
(PTI inputs)
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