Do we have a government in Punjab? The answer would be ‘Yes’, but the question is how effective it is and how committed is it to national security? Every now and then we are told that it is remote-controlled by the AAP high command in Delhi and, as commented by a weekly, the chief minister’ “gaffes display the inexperience of a rookie”. There have been disturbing incidents on the law and order front. On May 9, 2022, there was a rocket attack on the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarter. On May 29, singer-rapper Moosewala was murdered. On November 5, Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was killed in Amritsar. What happened at Ajnala police station on February 23, 2023, however, sent shock waves across the country. The Waris Punjab De (WPD) goons, led by Amritpal Singh, who has been trying to project himself as Bhidranwale 2.0, laid siege to the police station, browbeat the police and pressurized it to release one of their colleagues, Lovepreet Singh Toofan. The police were present in good strength, but they meekly obliged. Later, we were told that Amritpal had carried a copy of Guru Granth Sahib to the police station and therefore the police did not take any action lest there was any unintentional act of sacrilege which would have meant greater trouble.

There has been all-round criticism of Punjab government for its pathetic handling of the law and order problems. However, when the state government eventually decided to take action against Amritpal and his gang on March 18, it was felt that it had at last woken up to the grave threat posed by the pro-Khalistan group. But hope soon gave way to disappointment and disappointment gave way to despair. These feelings were aptly expressed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on March 21, when it asked: “What were 80,000 personnel doing when they (the absconder and his associates) were roaming about with weapons? How did he manage to flee despite you having all the (relevant) information about him and such heavy deployment of forces.”

It appears that the plan to strike at WPD was taken at a meeting held in the Ministry of Home Affairs on March 3. The meeting was attended by the chief minister and the police chief of Punjab and senior officers of the intelligence agencies. There was concern at the highest level over WPD’s state-wide Khalsa Vaheer campaign, which was scheduled to be launched on March 19; it was to be a religious procession which was to cover the entire state over the next few months with the objective of baptizing the youth into devout Sikhs. The government was also worried over Amritpal Singh’s plan to organise, what he called, the Anandpur Khalsa Force (AKF). Action was however delayed in view of the G-20 meetings which were to be held in Amritsar. Eighteen companies of the central armed police forces, including eight companies of the Rapid Action Force, were placed at the disposal of the state government.

What followed was a complete farce. We were told that Amritpal’s vehicle managed to dodge the police in Shahkot-Mehatpur area even though two other vehicles in the cavalcade were intercepted and seven of his associates were arrested. A massive cordon and search operation was thereafter launched. The Inspector General made a gloriously vague statement that “Punjab Police always works, keeping law and order in view”. People expected a result-oriented statement and not a homily. Amritpal is said to be “on the run” and the police are on his hot chase. Nobody knows how long will this charade go on. The sequence of events is quite unconvincing. Punjab is not Bastar or Nagaland where, once you escape the police dragnet, it is really difficult to locate and apprehend you.

Meanwhile seven FIRs have been registered against members of the WPD for “creating disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attacking cops and preventing them from carrying out their duties”. Action under the National Security Act has also been initiated. A total of 114 persons have been arrested. Flag marches have been held in important towns. Internet services were suspended in the state till March 21. Amritpal, the ringleader, however remains absconding.

What went wrong? There are three possibilities. Firstly, the erstwhile transporter was faster and smarter than the Punjab Police. If true, it would be a matter of shame for the state police. Secondly, while the chief minister agreed to act perhaps under pressure from the Home Minister, it is possible that the party high command directed him to make a show of going all out against WPD without actually laying hands on Amritpal. Thirdly, as is being alleged, Amritpal Singh has been detained but the police are not disclosing that for whatever reasons. In either case, it is going to be counter productive for the state government and the police.

According to the police submission in court, Amritpal Singh had been “professing radical ideologies to demand secession of Punjab from India and using all means, including violence, to create Khalistan” and that he was “abetting, instigating, provoking, motivating and conspiring to wage war against the state”. And yet, the police action has been tardy. The Punjab Police claim that the operation so far has been successful in terms of breaking Amritpal’s “will and his network including his associates”. This may be true but unless Amritpal himself is arrested and booked under stringent provisions of law, the possibility of his reviving the WPD would always remain.

The Punjab Police today unfortunately is no longer what it was while battling against terrorism in the eighties. This is essentially due to increasing politicisation of the khaki. There have been four Directors General of Police in the state since September 2021. Instability at the top level affects the discipline and morale of the force. Besides, according to a recent report, government have decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings for the award of major penalty to four senior officers of the department including the then DGP for breach in security during the Prime Minister’s visit to Punjab on January 5, 2022. Senior retired police officers also say that there is a general feeling among the serving officers  that in the event of a major problem with controversial overtones, it is safer not to take any action than to take action which is not likely to be defended by the political bosses later on. All these narratives go against the state government.

The Pak-based Khalistani groups would definitely be trying to fish in the troubled waters. At least four notorious terrorist leaders are said to be operating from Pakistan. They are, Wadhwa Singh Babbar of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Lakhbir Singh of International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Ranjit Singh of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), and Paramjit Singh of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF). The Pak ISI would, of course, be playing the game it has mastered over the years – of creating disaffection and subversion in India.

Punjab is having a dangerous cocktail of problems.  Apart from the well-organised, foreign-funded and aided attempt to revive terrorism in the state, there has been a proliferation of gangs in the state and it is estimated that about 70 gangs comprising 500 members are active.  Besides, the drug menace is disrupting the social structure of the state. Forty percent of the youth is said to be using drugs and forty-eight percent of farmers and labourers are estimated to be drug addicts. Pakistan has been regularly sending drones across the border to drop drugs and weapons.

Not that these problems cannot be tackled. It is just a question of strong leadership and clear directions to the administrative and police officers. During my last visit to Chandigarh about six months back, a Sikh officer said: “Sir, we need a chief minister like Yogi Adityanath and a DGP like KPS Gill”. It remains to be seen if Bhagwant Mann will rise to the occasion.

The problem has unfortunately acquired an external dimension also. Pro-Khalistan elements are active in USA, UK, Canada and Australia.  Government will have to mount diplomatic pressure on these countries to take action against these elements and ensure the security of the Indian missions in those countries. It should also consider the possibility of cancelling the OCI cards of identified Khalistani elements in foreign countries.

Punjab requires a comprehensive plan to tackle the multifarious problems it is facing. It will have to have three major components: disarming and neutralizing the criminal gang active in the state, tackling the drug menace internally and taking effective steps to curb smuggling of drugs from the Golden Crescent countries, and nipping in the bud the sinister attempts to revive terrorism in the State.  We have seen much blood-letting in Punjab. The country cannot afford another spell of that mayhem.

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It will be prudent to recall that in the late 70s, Pakistan’s military dictator President Gen Zia-ul-Haq had conceived his infamous K-2 strategy (Kashmir and Khalistan) to foment trouble in two of India’s strategic border states of Kashmir and Punjab. Since then, till date, Pakistan has relentlessly strived to plant the seeds of terrorism, religious strife and lawlessness in these border regions. That turmoil and militancy did affect Punjab also in the 80s cannot be denied. Ultimately, the patriotism of the sturdy Sikhs coupled with firm handling by the Centre and state governments and embellished by strong and effective state police leadership under officers like Julio Ribeiro and KPS Gill had curbed the insurgency in Punjab. Those dark days did throw up vital lessons for all stakeholders to imbibe and implement to prevent such recurrences. But as usually happens with most establishments, a sense of déjà vu takes over till the next crisis occurs! The current state in Punjab is no exception.

Background: Khalistan Movement

It will be prudent to briefly scan the past regards the emergence of the Khalistan Movement in the last many decades. Basically, this Movement is a fight for a separate sovereign Sikh state in present day Punjab (both India and Pakistan). However, this idea germinated since India’s independence but remained alive with very few of the populace and without any popular support till the early eighties. In the 60s and 70s, the Punjabi Suba Movement (a state with majority Sikh population with Punjabi as its official language) did gather momentum leading to the state being trifurcated into the Hindi speaking states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and Punjabi-speaking Sikh majority Punjab. The Akali Dal, the Sikhs based political party, which controlled the huge money powerful Sikh shrines through the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) also desired to have political power in this state led the agitation to have greater autonomy but within the Union of India. Meanwhile the old well entrenched Congress Party in Punjab did not let the Akalis have a free run to capture political power in Punjab. This led to the Akali Dal congregating in Anandpur Sahib, the birthplace of the Khalsa in 1973 and released a list of demands that the Akalis felt would grant more powers to the Sikhs and importantly, assist in their political power aspirations. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution did have marginal resonance with some of the Sikhs settled abroad. However, in the late 70s and early 80s, signs of Sikh separatism were markedly evident under the leadership of a fiery priest from the Damdama Taksal, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The latter galvanized unemployed Sikh youth and openly spoke about Khalistan with his young and a growing number of supporters. They took over many ‘gurudwaras ‘, created communal disharmony among the Hindu and Sikh populations while the Punjab Police found itself rather helpless at the growing state of law and order in India’s strategic State bordering a mischief creating terrorism driven Pakistan. This was the time when under Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s explicit directions, Pakistan’s sinister ISI stepped up the smuggling of arms, terrorists and drugs to Punjab for fuelling the ‘K Movement’.

Operation Blue Star

With Bhindranwale in complete control of many sacred Sikh shrines including the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the killing of innocent Hindus, the Centre under PM Indira Gandhi had to take the unfortunate and hard decision to use the Indian Army to flush out the terrorists holed up inside the Golden Temple. Thus, Operation Blue Star was launched on June 6, 1984, Bhindranwale was killed and the precincts of the sacred shrine were cleansed. This also led to the tragic assassination of PM Indira Gandhi at the hands of her two Sikh bodyguards and in its aftermath the killing of many innocent Sikhs in Delhi and a few other places in India. Those were indeed very dark days for the nation when its two brotherly communities who had lived in peace and joy and observed each other’s rituals and festivals together for centuries found themselves in disharmony. Nevertheless, normalcy soon returned to Punjab, but the scars of 1984 did leave an indelible impression in the minds of the Sikhs especially among its diaspora. This aspect has continued to be exploited by the wily ISI to keep the embers of the Khalistan Movement alive.

Sikh Diaspora and Khalistan Referendums

Since the past two years or so ominous clouds have been gathering among some of the Sikh diaspora settled in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany fanned by an India-banned organization named “Sikhs For Justice.” This outfit is led by a US based secessionist lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannu who has been organising “Khalistan Referendums” in UK, Canada and now in Australia trying to galvanize the local Sikh communities settled there to vote for Punjab to secede from India. That apart from creating ill-will among the Sikhs and the rest of the Indian community settled abroad and some local law and order situations there, not much credence to such nefarious activities can be ascribed to them. It has also given a bad name to the otherwise peace-loving and progressive Sikh community abroad. However, what has been a cause of concern is that the extremists have switched over to the new tactic of defacing Hindu temples abroad and painting anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti on these temples, besides threatening some local Hindu priests as well. In Australia, relatively quiet earlier, there have been four such cases in the last two months.  It is thus evident that Sikh secessionists, aided and abetted by Pakistani agents, are endeavouring to inject a religio-communal divide among the Hindus and Sikhs abroad. The Indian government has taken up the issue with the local governments abroad who, while stating that they respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, really cannot do much owing to the freedom of expression and speech in their respective nations!

Current Situation in Punjab

Since the past few years, Punjab has been increasingly becoming the epicenter of drugs coming in large quantities from Pakistan. The use of drones to ferry in arms and drugs has become commonplace giving our Border Security Force and Punjab Police an exacting time to control this menace which ultimately fuels the radicals and other anti-social elements. Since the last one year or less, the activities of an earlier clean-shaven, small time but a radicalized 30-year-old Dubai- based driver Amritpal Singh is a cause of growing concern for the security establishment both in Punjab and the Centre. Dressed like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who he claims as his inspiration and now heading a militant outfit called ‘Waris Punjab De’, Amritpal Singh has mobilised many a Punjabi youth and has been going around Punjab invoking the Khalistan agenda. His followers carrying the sacred Guru Granth Sahib on their head, brandishing swords and firearms attacked the Ajnala Police Station recently to free one of Amritpal’s aides from police custody. Amazingly, the AAP led Punjab government freed the aforesaid aide, though some Sikh scholars have correctly not approved carrying the holy book into a police station! A few days earlier, Amritpal’s followers had attacked the Union territory’s Chandigarh police and injured nearly 40 policemen. That this major breakdown of law and order does not seem to have been addressed adequately by the police or even the Central agencies is a cause of concern. Extremists cannot be allowed to hijack the law and order environment under any circumstances and such events do not bode well for the future.

Meanwhile, the radical Khalistani firebrand Amritpal has been openly talking about secession and even had the temerity to threaten Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, with the same fate former PM Indira Gandhi had suffered (implying assassination). How Amritpal avoided being arrested on charges of sedition has surprised many and now the story of him being a “plant” have surfaced! The AAP government in Punjab is also considered by many in the media and some defence analysts, as being ineffective and soft in the current situation. It is felt that since 2017, the AAP has had some links with the radical elements in Punjab and did obtain their votes overwhelmingly in last year’s state elections!

Remedial Measures

Punjab is an immensely strategic border state which underwent very trying times in the 1980s and it was only in the mid-90s that the situation had been brought back to full normalcy. Thus, it must not be put through another ordeal by fire. Though law and order is primarily a state subject but conditions today in Punjab are ripe enough for further deterioration in case the Centre and state governments fail to react with synergy, firmness and alacrity.

It does not require any brilliance to suggest that any or all radical elements preaching secession must be arrested soonest as our law dictates. The State police must not look the other way wherever any illegal activities take place or there is a willful breakdown of law and order in the environment. Lethargy in dealing with extremists will surely lead to anarchy in Punjab.

The Centre must send out Sikh led multi-community delegations to countries where the Sikh diaspora is restive to explain to the latter the essence of India. Secessionists and mischief makers must be exposed before their own community. These delegations must have known and learned members from civil society whose views are generally respected among the spectrum of various communities. Indian missions abroad must play a far more active role in handling the diaspora and keeping them abreast of India’s economic progress and, importantly, the core values of India’s civilisational society which nurtures a multi-plural, secular and sane society where respect for all faiths is sine qua non.  In addition, the highest powerful body of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht, may also consider issuing a “hukamnama “(diktat) on the carriage of the sacred holy Guru Granth Sahib to public places like  police station.

The Indian government must convey to Pakistan to cease indulging in such mischief. They should be suitably warned that India has refrained, so far, from exploiting the many fault lines existing regards Pakistan and it will be politically prudent for them too not to  indulge in such anti-neighbourly  activities.

The Centre and all state governments, civil society in particular especially the intelligentsia and the academia, must zealously strike for ensuring, by all means available, inter-societal harmony. There is no place for communal disharmony among Indians of all hues in today’s environment. It is the bounden duty of all political parties to ensure that the factors of religion, caste and creed are never exploited for electoral ends. The Centre must also, particularly, for the agrarian state of Punjab seriously attend to the manifold woes of Punjabi farmers who have been suffering, since years, regarding getting adequate prices for their labours and produce. It is clear by now that some farmer organisations were also being funded and exploited by anti-national elements during their otherwise legitimate agitations.

As India’s diplomatic, security and intelligence agencies keep a tight vigil over any secessionist mischief being endeavoured, both inside and abroad, a synergetic approach by both the centre and state governments must be speedily adopted to nip, any and all anti-national activities, in the bud. Punjab—the crown jewel of India—has to be kept solely on the path of peace, progress and prosperity and not fall a prey to the machinations of all those who do not wish India well.

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No one, however, was injured in the explosion, which political parties termed “disturbing” and “shocking”. The explosion took place at around 7.45 pm at the office located at sector 77 in Mohali. The windowpanes on one of the floors of the building were shattered because of the explosion.

“A minor explosion was reported at the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in sector 77, SAS Nagar at around 7.45 PM. No damage has been reported. Senior officers are on the spot and an investigation is being done. Forensic teams have been called,” the Mohali police said in a statement. The police have cordoned off the area and an alert has been sounded.

A police official told reporters that there was no casualty in the incident. “A minor blast took place at the intelligence building. The investigation is going on and our senior officials are on the spot,” the police official said. “The blast took place with a rocket type fire. There is no casualty,” said the official. He further said the forensic teams have also reached the spot. He said an FIR was being lodged over the incident.

Asked if it was a terror attack, he said the investigation was going on. A quick reaction team of the Chandigarh police was also deputed near the Intelligence office building. Senior officials of the Punjab police have reached the spot. Police said a search operation has been launched to nab the culprit.

The explosion came close on the heels of the recovery of an explosive device near Burail Jail in Chandigarh on April 24. Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh expressed shock over the explosion and urged Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take strict action against those who were behind this incident. “ Shocked to hear about the blast at the @PunjabPoliceInd Intelligence headquarter in Mohali. Thankfully nobody was hurt. This brazen attack on our police force is deeply concerning and I urge CM @BhagwantMann to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice at the earliest,” said Singh in a tweet.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, “Disturbing news of a blast at the @PunjabPoliceInd intelligence bureau building in Mohali. Praying for everyone’s safety and well-being.” Former Punjab Home Minister and Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa dubbed the explosion as a “sign of deep communalism”.

“The bomb blast in Mohali is a sign of deep communalism. I strongly condemn this incident and urge the @PunjabPoliceInd to investigate and take stern action against those who are intent on disturbing the peace of Punjab,” said Randhawa who is also a legislator from Dera Baba Nanak. Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said he was deeply shocked at the blast.

“Deeply shocked at the blast at Punjab Police’s Intelligence Bureau HQs, Mohali, exposing serious security lapses and highlighting once again the deteriorating law & order situation in Punjab. Thorough probe required to expose & punish those responsible,” said Badal in a tweet.

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