Punjab moves 2 companies to secure Bhakra dam from LET Mohammedan terrorists

Punjab moves 2 companies to secure Bhakra
20 Mar 2009, 0504 hrs IST, Shruti Setia Chhhabra, TNN

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab police on Thursday put two companies at the disposal of senior superintendent of police, Ropar, to beef up security at the
Bhakra Nangal dam. The move follows the Union government’s alert to Punjab on “Lashkar threat” to the hydroelectric project.

Sources said the terror alert was based on intercepts of a telephonic conversation of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives in Pakistan that they could target the project. They claimed that the damages could be colossal if the dam is breached, “as some 1,500 villages will be submerged and food production hit for another six months”.

The Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has already asked for CISF security. The requirement to deploy extra forces at Ropar has come at a time when the state police needs manpower for election duty and the forthcoming IPL matches.

Meanwhile, the government also stepped up security at other vital installations and religious places in the state.

Earlier this year, police had received some anonymous letters written in Urdu and posted from Kashmir, warning of attacks across the state on Republic Day.

On Wednesday, a senior state official had told The Times of India, “It is not a very recent development, but yes, there is a mention of Lashkar people talking about Bhakra dam in the communication from the Centre. In any case, nobody is taking any information lightly as hard lessons have been learnt from 26/11.”

Major Pakistan sponsored spy ring busted in Amritsar

Pak spy ring is busted in Amritsar
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, CHANDIGARH
Thursday, 19 March 2009, The Asian Age

March 18: The Punjab police claims to have unearthed a major Pakistan-sponsored espion-age network operating across Amritsar, Jalan-dhar, Ferozepur and Patiala with the arrest of four alleged spies (all Indian nationals).

The four men – Naib Singh, Baldev Singh, Sukhdev Singh alias Bhola and Randhir Singh alias Master – were picked up in a coordinated operation by the Amritsar-based special narcotics cell and police counterintelligence units, an official said on Wednesday.

The spies are said to have been in possession of numerous documents and photographs detailing Indian military locations and troop movements. The seiz-ure also includes a diary containing numbers of Pakistan-based telephones. The police said two of the arrested men have a Khalistani background with several Tada cases pending against them.

Mohammedan terrorists target Bhakra Dam in Punjab

Bhakra Dam on militants’ radar: Intelligence sources
18 Mar 2009, 2209 hrs IST, PTI

CHANDIGARH: The Bhakra Nangal Dam located on the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border is on the radar of militant outfits, including that of
Pakistan-based LeT, highly-placed intelligence sources said here on Wednesday.

Intelligence inputs spoke of a possible terror strike on the dam, the sources said adding security had been beefed up around the vital installation.

Chief secretaries and senior police officers of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh held an emergency meeting to take stock of the situation in the wake of intelligence reports.

Taking note of the possible strike by militant outfits, including LeT, security agencies also held a meeting with the Bhakra Beas Management Board.

Adequate security force personnel had been deployed to thwart any terror attack, the sources said.

Pak Hindus hide in Punjab, forcible conversions, abductions, torture in Pakistan

Pak Hindus hide in Punjab
Ajay Bharadwaj
Thursday, December 25, 2008  01:09 IST

CHANDIGARH: Fearing persecution in Pakistan, more than 150 families of Pakistani Hindus have been hiding in Punjab and Haryana for the past two years without valid documents to support their stay in India.

Police in the two states have not initiated any legal action against them, though their stay has been termed “grossly illegal”. The police said about 5,000 to 6,000 Pakistani Hindus are living in the two states. “The refugees are refusing to go back to their country,” said a senior police officer.

Om Prakash, a Pakistani Hindu, said: “We lived in the Mianwali area of Pakistan. While many of our relatives crossed over to India in 1947, we failed to do so.”

“We were tortured in Pakistan. Daughters of poor Hindu families were abducted. There was no point in complaining to the police as they refused to help,” they said.

Om Parkash, who used to run a small shop near Peshawar, said in the past few years many Hindus had been killed by criminals for ransom or for not converting to Islam.

Many of the refugees are keen on taking Indian citizenship. Official sources said the problem had been brought to the notice of the Union home ministry. “If we give them Indian citizenship, our relation with Pakistan may be affected. That is why their cases have been pending for so long,” the sources said.

ISI planning super terrorism in India – must read

ISI expands network from J&K to South; talks ‘super terrorism’

NEW DELHI, AUG 29 (PTI)
Terror groups backed by Pakistan’s ISI could use chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological weapons against India initiating a form of “super terrorism”, warns a Union Home Ministry report.

With ISI spreading its tentacles in the country from Jammu and Kashmir to down South, the report spoke of active terror modules mushrooming in Bihar, Assam and West Bengal where the sleeper cells have been assigned with specific targets.

In its section on terror groups and weapons of mass destruction, the report said “super terrorism in this perspective can be defined as projected future use of chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological weapons by terrorist groups.”

The report said Indo-Nepal border in Bihar is being used for smuggling of arms, explosives, fake currency into the country, while the agency was focusing on Uttar Pradesh to fund Madrasas and recruit youngsters for subversive activities.

South India too is an important part of the overall ISI game-plan since it is being targeted to recruit unemployed youths.

The report also mentions that ISI is trying to revive Punjab militancy and form new anti-India groups in the state.

While Maharashtra has been a victim of underworld gangs which have strong links with ISI, the report mentions that the Pakistan agency was also trying to liaison with the underworld in Gujarat and are using the coastal line for transporting arms and drug running operations.

200 Pak organisations raise funds for Islamic terror: IB

200 Pak organisations raise funds for terror: IB
Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru

June 10, 2008 16:47 IST
Even as security agencies try and crack down on terror outfits in the country, a government document based on information from the Intelligence Bureau says terror funding continues unabated.
An IB dossier claims that most of the funds raised by terror outfits come through self-styled NGOs and charity organisations.

According to the IB, there are at least 200 entities in Pakistan raising funds for terror operations.

The afore-mentioned document suggests that the nexus between Indian gangsters and Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, the ISI, agency is also getting stronger by the day.

According to the report, Maharashtra is a key transit point for funds, with most of the money landing there before being dispatched to the rest of the country.

An IB official told rediff.com that the financial channel is carefully monitored by terror outfits, and that the money ends up at the sleeper cells for use after passing through several levels.

IB sources say the money collected in Pakistan is transferred to Dubai through hawala operators before it reaches India.

The IB states that of late the base for the terror operations have shifted out of Kashmir, and attributes it to international pressure, the peace talks between India and Pakistan, and stepping up of security in the state.

However, the IB states that during a recent meeting convened by the ISI it was decided to bring Kashmir back on the boil, and that this may lead to renewed terror attacks in that state.

The government document also notes that the ISI has been stoking increased militancy in Punjab and the north-eastern states.

Since 2006 several terror cells set up by the ISI have been neutralised in Kashmir, forcing it to look beyond. The ISI then re-launched its Operation Pin Code and Operation Topac with a view to destabilising the entire country. That is where Punjab and the north-east come in.

The IB report says the Ludhiana blasts of October 2007 indicate that the ISI is desperately trying to revive Sikh militancy which had died a natural death in the late 1980s. The ISI has taken upon itself to roil Punjab so that it could have a partner in carrying out terror operations.

The IB also states that the ISI has been trying to improve its ties with militants in the north-east. The arrest of six People’s United Liberation Front members in Karnataka recently pointed to the ISI’s plans for the region. The six men had been suspended from the PULF over their links with the ISI, and the internal clashes over its involvement with the indigenous militant groups.

The first stage in Topac and Pin Code involves low-level insurgency through placing operatives in key locations across the country with a view to subverting the police force, communication networks, and financial institutions.

Phase two, which is underway, deals with stepping up terror in the border areas and elsewhere, through the Afghan mujahideen and Bangla militants who will have entered the country to carry out terror strikes.

Attempts on to revive terrorism in Punjab: Cops

Attempts on to revive terrorism in Punjab: Cops

June 06, 2008 15:14 IST

Three Sikh bodies have formed a base in the region in a bid to launch terror attacks in Punjab, police said on Friday.

Three terrorists belonging to them were recently arrested. During interrogation, they said about 40 terrorists have formed three outfits — Khalistan Zindabad Force, Panj Pardhani Group and Iknoor Khalsa Fauj — with their base in Barnala.

Police nabbed Malikeet Singh, Surjeet Singh and Harbans Singh on the Jammu-Akhnoor-Poonch highway and recovered one AK rifle, five pistols and some ammunition.

Police sources told PTI that Panj Pardhani Group was formed after Malkeet Singh was released from a Patiala jail in January after 10 months. Some group members were earlier affiliated to Khalsa Dal.

They were reportedly in touch with some terrorists in Pakistan. Sources said the chief of the so-called Khalistan Zindabad Force, Ranjeet Singh Neeta, who has links with Pakistan intelligence agency ISI, agreed to send them weapons.

Neeta hails from Jammu and has been operating from Pakistan for over a decade.