On 28th January, a tweet from a pro-Khalistani group in UK announced Harmeet Singh aka Happy PhD’s killing in a shoot-out near Gurudwara in Lahore, by Hindustani (Indian) agents. Blaming his killing on Indian agencies was a face saver by Pakistani spy agency, ISI, that was assisting Harmeet Singh, one of the most wanted terrorist in India, to revive Khalistan movement, and to carry out Hindu ethnic cleansing in Punjab. But ISI deserted him when he got involved with a married Muslim woman, who was the relative of Harmeet’s business associate, a drug lord based in Pakistan. His killing is a sign of the cracks developing between ideologically different terrorist organizations, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Khalistani groups.
Happy PhD— a Khalistani drug lord with international network
Harmeet Singh, chief of a terrorist group Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), was called Happy PhD by his associates for he was a PhD candidate of religious studies at Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab, just before he fled to Pakistan. In 2008, Punjab police had registered a FIR against Harmeet Singh for the first time, after Police had busted his Khalistani module in Punjab, and seized a war store of–AK rifles, pistols, 900 cartridges, $35,000 fake currency and 25 Kg of Heroin. But this was just the beginning of Happy PhD’s decade long stint as a Khalistani terrorist and a drug lord. Since
then Harmeet’s name has popped up in many murders, cross-border drug deals and grenade attacks across Punjab, which includes attack on Amritsar’s Rajasansi religious congregation, which killed 3 people. He also had a red corner notice issued against him by Interpol.
With an innocent face and jaunty demeanor, it was easy for Harmeet to maintain an excellent network across the world. It has been revealed during the interrogation of many of his associates that he used to get Hawala funds from Canada, Middle-East and European countries like England, Germany and Italy too. He had been working in tandem with people from across the globe, which involved Romi, a Punjabi drug dealer who is expected to be extradited to India from Hong-Kong, and Ranjit Singh Neeta, leader of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), who now lives in Pakistan.
ISI had stumbled upon one of the best Indian agents to be represented as the face Khalistani movement, who could also carry out it’s cross-border nefarious activities with ease. Responsibilities handed out to Harmeet were:
· To radicalize and recruit Punjabi youngsters on social media platforms.
So far more than 200 Khalistani modules busted by Punjab Police were found to
be linked to KLF, terrorist organization lead by Harmeet.
· To supply arms and ammunitions to pro-Khalistan groups as well as to terrorist organizations like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen in Kashmir.
Harmeet was ostensibly in contact with Zakir Musa, a Kashmiri terrorist who is
the founder of an Indian wing of Al-Qaeda.
· To facilitate spread of narco-terrorism in the region. The strategy was to turn youth of
Punjab into opiate addicts and then force them to carry out terrorist
activities in India.
· To supply drugs to drug dealers in India located in Ferozpur, Faridkot, Amritsar,
Pathankot and Gurdaspur region, from Pakistan.
Harmeet’s role in assisting ISI’s sinister plan to make an ethnically homogenous Punjab
Harmeet had been ISI’s bridge between terrorist organizations in Kashmir and Khalistani groups. Indian agencies have confirmed that myriads of Kashmiri students who had joined universities in Punjab were contacted by pro-Khalistan groups like KLF, with enticing offers to trap the students in the net of terrorism. This is a part of the bigger game plan of ISI.
ISI’s strategy—to transmogrify Punjab into another Kashmir, from where Hindus were ousted. Hinduism is professed by the majority population in India, ergo, with Hindus pushed out of Indian state of Punjab, Pakistani entities would be able to run amok in the state, just like they did in Kashmir, which was turned into an ethnically homogenous state in late 1980’s.
Harmeet was one of the pawns of ISI’s strategy, who had helped in killing of many Hindu leaders in Punjab. The list includes killing of RSS leader Brig Jagdish Ganeja and Shiv Sena’s Punjab leaders—Satpal Sharma, his son Ramesh Kumar, and Durga Gupta. In just one year (2016-2017) eight such incidents of killing of Hindu leaders had taken place. This was called Operation express. The alacrity with which this operation was being carried out had alarmed the Indian agencies, which then tightened their noose around Khalistan groups in Punjab.
Soon Harmeet began to rely on drones to drop weapon and drug caches on Punjab border. But his activities had to be whittled down as Indian defence forces and sleuths were tracking his movements.
The final blow
Harmeet had been involved with a married Muslim woman, who was a relative of one of his associates. Three weeks ago, they were caught red-handed by the woman’s relatives at a hotel and this had led to manhandling of both Harmeet and the woman. That day he was also warned against meeting the woman again.
Harmeet, who had been under ISI’s patronage since almost a decade, and had expected ISI to negotiate with the woman’s relatives, but he had clearly crossed a red line beyond which ISI doesn’t entertain it’s agents. Terrorist organizations like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Khalistan groups hold radically opposite ideology– while the former wants to establish a Muslim majority state in Kashmir, the latter seeks to create a separate country for Sikhs. Annals of history reveal that radicalized Muslims and Sikhs have never seen any bonhomie exist among them, and partition of India had exacerbated the already bitter relations between the two communities. This is one reason that ISI decided to stick to their no-interference policy when Harmeet, a sikh, got involved with a Muslim woman.
Harmeet Singh’s body was refused to be handed over to India as it would have clearly proved that Pakistan shelters many anti-India entities on it’s soil. So he was cremated in the presence of a Superintendent rank officer and Station house officer of Dera Chahal station in Lahore, Pakistan. The bridge between terrorist organisations in Kashmir and Khalistani groups has been burnt down. Now ISI is on the look out of a new face of narco-terrorism, who is not vulnerable to make the same blunders as Harmeet singh.
This article is written by Levina
Read—Father, well and 7 daughters
Read—Who was responsible for the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir?