Groundbreaking media revelation: India used ISIS to assassinate Sikhs

A new report from the Guardian newspaper has revealed that Indian State intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) “recruited jihadists” to target “Sikh separatists in the Khalistan movement…in Pakistan and the west”.

The report (4th April) from the UK newspaper revealed “Indian agents used social media to infiltrate networks of Islamic State (IS) and units connected to the Taliban, where they recruited and groomed Pakistani Islamist radicals to carry out hit jobs on Indian dissidents”. Khalistani (free Sikh homeland supporting) groups have long been cited as some of India’s biggest dissidents, which groups like the NSYF have documented in detailed fashion.

The source for the information was cited as both “Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives” and documents from “Pakistani investigators”, all of which revealed India had “assassinated individuals in Pakistan“, a campaign linked to “almost 20 killings since 2020” in the country which has seen major political upheaval during that period. The killers have nearly always been cited as “unknown gunmen”. The term has since become regularly used as a threat by Indian nationalist accounts to Sikhs on social media, including to The Sikh Press Association’s own Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh on his personal Twitter account.

India were able to infiltrate these networks using help “from former IS fighters from the Indian state of Kerala” who had deserted in 2019 and began working for India. The alarming news has seen many now question India’s role in the notorious March 2020 Kabul Gurdwara massacre by ISIS, which saw 25 Sikhs, including a three-year-old, slaughtered by a group of ISIS fanatics which included a Kerala Muslim. The massacre was said to be an act of revenge against comments from Hindutva (Hindu extremist) politician Nupur Sharma.

The article also expanded on last year’s killing of respected Khalistani activist Shaheed (martyr) Bhai Paramjit Singh Panjwar, who was shot dead in May in Pakistan, in what can now be seen to be a textbook incident of the type described through the Guardian investigation. According to the article, the killer “thought he was working on the instructions of the Pakistan Taliban affiliate Badri 313 Battalion”.

The investigation also further confirmed the Indian State was behind the assassination of Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey (BC, Canada), and also likely Shaheed Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda (Birmingham, UK), both in June last year. India’s involvement in the attempted assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the USA last year has already been confirmed by authorities, with an ongoing effort to extradite and prosecute Indian State terrorist Nikhil Gupta for running the operation. The article also stated “such operations ‘needed approval from the highest level of government'”. Recently India claimed that “rogue operatives” were behind the Pannun plot, a confession which was mocked by various Sikh orgs. However, in response to the recent Guardian revelations, yesterday India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh confessed India does carry out such killings.

“The suspicion in Delhi was that firebrand Sikh activists living abroad, particularly those in Canada, the US and the UK, were fuelling the farmers’ protests and stirring up international support through their strong global networks. It stoked fears that these activists could be a destabilising force and were capable of reviving Khalistani militancy in India” the Guardian reports.

However, even individuals less associated with Khalistan have likely suffered due to India’s inflammation of anti-Sikh rhetoric in Pakistan. As reported by Sikh PA, the Islamic State took responsibility for the killing of another Sikh man, also in June 2023, and were also linked to two other murders of Sikh men before that shooting of Tarlok Singh.

Speaking on the revelations, Sikh PA’s Jasveer Singh said:

“For the sake of formality, the Guardian article has to say India is only ‘alleged’ to have carried out these killings, but their own investigation makes things as about transparent as they can be, directly from the mouths of Indian and Pakistani agents working on these very cases.

“However, it is important to note that Sikh groups were again the first to report what is now being detailed a year later. Namely, that Shaheed Bhai Paramjit Singh Panjwar could only have been killed by the Indian State, although how they got it done may have shocked many, including Hindu nationalists who would not think their nation would work with Islamic militants to target Sikhs. But that’s how low India will go to target Sikhs.

“Everything the Guardian article confirms can be found being said by Sikh activists and orgs at least months ago, if not years. For this reason, it is imperative media take Sikh understandings of such situations on board, instead of being dismissive, such as in the case of the suspected poisoning of Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda, which the UK government seems determined to ignore.”

Pakistani authorities have confirmed there are other Sikh activists living in Pakistan who are believed to be under threat from the Indian State. Suspicious deaths of Sikh activists and prominent figures from Italy to India have continued in 2024, with many close to the situations insisting it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government behind the deaths, including activist Rattandeep Singh just yesterday.

Media inquiries- Media@SikhPA.com.