New Delhi: An accused in a series of cases — ranging from those registered under The Explosives Act to arms smuggling — International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) chief Lakhbir Singh Rode, who died of a heart attack in Lahore Monday, was among the 20 most-wanted terrorists in India. He was 71 at the time of his death.
Nephew of Sikh separatist militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Lakhbir, originally a resident of Rode village in Punjab’s Moga district, was listed as an “individual terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and was allegedly responsible for handling many sleeper cells across India, Europe, the UK and Canada, to “execute terror attacks in India”.
Rode who fled to Pakistan in 1996 also had a red notice issued by the Interpol in his name, said intelligence sources.
Founder of the banned organisation International Sikh Youth Federation, Lakhbir is accused of “trying to revive terrorism in Punjab” by “targeting political leaders and VVIPs” and the dossier maintained on him by law enforcement agencies includes cases of targeted killings, extortion, carrying out IED blasts, armed attacks on law enforcement personnel, fundraising for terror activities, among others, sources added.
“Our investigation has shown that Lakhbir smuggled drugs and explosives to India from Pakistan for carrying out terror acts across Punjab,” said one of the sources.
In 2002, India had sought his extradition from Pakistan.
“ISYF was operating at various places in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the USA and aspired to carve out Indian territory as an independent state that is Khalistan [a separate state for Sikhs] through violent means. Lakhbir was looking after all its operations,” said the intelligence source quoted above.
Earlier this year, the National Investigation Agency also confiscated a piece of land belonging to Lakhbir at Kothe Gurupura village in Moga. A notice put up by the NIA said that one-fourth share in the land belonging to Lakhbir Singh was being confiscated following an NIA court order.
The NIA is investigating six cases against Lakhbir for his active involvement in terror-related activities between 2021 and 2023.
A report published in The Intercept this November quoted secret Pakistani intelligence assessments to accuse the Indian intelligence agency, RAW,of planning assassinations targeting Sikh and Kashmiri activists living in foreign countries.
According to purported documents with The Intercept, RAW was allegedly targeting individuals, including Sikh activists living in Pakistan and wanted by the Indian government. The report among other “targets”, also mentioned Lakhbir as being on the radar of Indian agencies.
According to the report, one alleged target in Islamabad is unnamed, while another is Lakhbir Singh Rode.
The report also claimed that according to family members, threats to Rode have increased in recent years, forcing him to go deeper into seclusion. “His son, Bhagat Singh, says that surveillance photographs of his father’s car and residence had previously been sent to Pakistani authorities by Indian intelligence, as part of a demand by India to Pakistan to turn him over,” said the report.
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‘Tiffin bombs, weapons from across the border’
According to sources, the dossier with Punjab Police mentions Lakhbir as a mastermind of “tiffin bombs” — an improvised explosive device in which a tiffin box is rigged with the explosives.
He was also booked by Punjab Police in a tiffin bomb blast case reported on 15 September, 2021, in Jalalabad town of Fazilka district of Punjab
According to a source in the NIA, Singh masterminded the whole conspiracy, working in collusion with his Pakistan-based “masters” to carry out the blast.
“He played a key role in sending consignments of terrorist hardware, including arms, ammunition, custom-made Tiffin bombs, grenades, explosives as well as drugs, to carry out terrorist acts, particularly bomb blasts, to instill fear and terror among the people of Punjab,” the source said.
Lakhbir was also allegedly involved in the 2021 Ludhiana court blast, which left one person dead and six injured. Lakhbir’s nephew was arrested after RDX and a tiffin bomb was recovered in Jalandhar the same year.
Another of his alleged associates, Harpreet Singh alias Happy Singh, was arrested by the NIA in December last year. Singh, also a key accused in the Ludhiana court blast case, was arrested after he landed in New Delhi from Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur.
During the probe, investigators allegedly received inputs about Singh’s involvement in smuggling the IED device used in the blast from across the border using a drone, said NIA sources.
According to the sources, the device was smuggled from Pakistan with the help of ISI operatives. Following this, he was named in the case as “wanted”.
According to NIA officials, Singh was an associate of Lakhbir.
“Acting on the directions of Lakhbir, he coordinated the delivery of the custom-made IED which had been sent from Pakistan, to his India-based associates, that was used in the Ludhiana court complex blast,” an NIA officer said.
According to a Punjab police officer, Lakhbir smuggled arms and ammunition through Jammu and Kashmir with the help of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.
Lakhbir, the sources added, was actively engaged in “sending weapons and explosives consignments from across the border to India to carry out terrorist activities in Punjab”.
Punjab Police have over the years arrested various accused and recovered arms, ammunition, and explosives, who allegedly revealed during interrogation that they were in contact with Lakhbir and had carried consignments of arms, ammunition and explosives to India at his instance.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)