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2005-07-05 Afghanistan/South Asia
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New breed of Khalistan terrorists in it just for the money
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There was never a doubt that the dark days of the 80s and the early 90s in Punjab had left a residue that will take forever to be wiped out. Yet, when the Delhi Police arrested Jagtar Singh Hawara on June 8 in connection with the blasts in two movie halls in the capital last month, the Punjab Police was first embarrassed and then stunned. What came out of the interrogation and raids across Punjab was no small residue. Hawara, the main accused in the Beant Singh assassination case and chief of Indian operations of the Babbar Khalsa International, had apparently planned to do much more. Punjabâs director-general of police, S.S. Virk, said Hawaraâs men were possibly planning to abduct VIPs and secure his release. The news of Hawaraâs arrest was in itself a shocker for the Punjab Police. But their faces turned red when they realised that Hawara had spent most of the past 18 months right under their noses: marrying a girl in Ludhiana district; visiting a woman in Hoshiarpur district; setting up home in Patiala district; and hobnobbing with fellow-conspirators in Nawanshahar district. Within a fortnight of Hawaraâs arrest, anti-terrorist squads in the districts caught 24 Babbar Khalsa members and seized huge caches of explosives.
The police saw a smart pattern in the way the Babbars were regrouping and recruiting the youth. They were no more the hardcore fundamentalists. Shorn of orthodoxy and dogma, the new age Babbars sported trimmed beards and short hair, and had Hindu buddies working with them. They were no longer from the rural base and the hideouts were in the cities. Unlike the illiterate ones who carried AK-47s in the 80s, they were educated with a modern outlook. In fact, they wanted to be paid overseas for the work done here. Liberal funds from abroad, made available through the hawala route, meant they did not have to demand protection money or ransom at gunpoint. According to Virk, Hawara got Rs 50 lakh in the one year after his escape.
Hawara and his men lured the youth promising a one-way journey to Europe or North America. That probably explains why even Hindus and women joined him. Though there is not a visible groundswell of support for the Babbar Khalsa, the police think the numbers may come as a surprise. Their dependence on Pakistan continues. "There are just two or three trainers and five or six getting trained at a time, but there are small bases in Pakistan," said Virk. Khalistan is no longer the goal, though it may be the dream of some politicians. But it is definitely the nine-letter word that gets them dollars. 
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Posted by Paul Moloney 2005-07-05 05:00||
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