The Long Shadow of Khalistan

THE ATTACK ON THE PUNJAB POLICE INTELLIGENCE HQ IS A REMINDER THAT THE KHALISTAN ISSUE IS STILL SIMMERING. THIS TIME THE SEPARATISTS ARE USING GANGSTERS TO DO THEIR DIRTY WORK

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

IT WAS AROUND 7.45 PM on the night of May 9 when the intelligence wing headquarters of Punjab Police in scenic Mohali was suddenly rocked by a mini blast and the sound of shattered window panes. The attack, using an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), happened when most of the sleuths had left for the day, so there were no casualties. But it again raised a security agencies bogey—the long shadow of the Khalistan movement hasn’t faded away as yet.

Soon after the attack, a voice note landed at Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s office claiming to be from New York-based Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the banned Khalistani outfit Sikhs for Justice. It claimed credit for the attack in Mohali and left a threat that the Shimla Police HQ could be next. But investigators soon revealed that it was a bogus claim; the Mohali attack was apparently engineered by gangster-turned militant Harvinder Singh Sandhu, a.k.a. Rinda Sandhu.