India accuses Pakistan of masterminding 'Sikh terror'

Indian Home Minister Wednesday said there have been "significant developments" on the Sikh militancy, charging there commanders based in neighbouring Pakistan are under pressure from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to execute terror attacks not only in Punjab but also in other parts of the country. "Sikh youth are being trained in ISI facilities in Pakistan," Sushil Kumar Shinde said here. Shine, who was speaking at the Chief Ministers Conference on Internal Security, said, "Interdictions and interrogations have revealed use of jailed cadres, unemployed youth, criminals and smugglers by Pakistan-based Sikh terror groups for facilitating terror attacks in India." Shinde charged Sikh youth based and settled in Europe and the US are also being motivated in this regard. "A large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives, including RDX have managed to find its way into Punjab through the borders, even as a significant quantity of RDX has since been recovered in police action in Rajasthan and Punjab in the last one year," the home minister added. The insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab started in late 1970s, as Sikh revolutionaries alongside Khalistan (separate state) proponents turned to rebellion. India, however, managed to end the armed uprising in late 80s. On Wednesday, Shinde said India has long and porous border with Bangladesh and Nepal, which have been used by Pakistan-based jehadi groups to "ex-filtrate terrorists out of India for training in Pakistan and induction of terrorist elements, hardware, finance into India for actions." Shinde added, "Jehadi tanzeems (groups) in Pakistan with affiliation to Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammd and Indian Mujahideen have set up channels for transfer of funds from Pakistan to India via Gulf nations and Nepal, besides using Western Union Money Transfer and Hawala (money laundering) channel. Moreover, former cadres of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and similar militant elements based in Gulf have also been observed collecting money for causing destruction in India." Talking about the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir, he said, the internal security situation in the country during the year 2012-13 has remained largely under control, with Jammu Kashmir particularly showing marked improvement since 2010. "Infiltration attempts have decreased by 19.35% due to multi-pronged approach of the government to contain cross border infiltration. Border management has been tightened through construction of border fence, use of improved technology, acquisition of latest weapons for security forces and most importantly through improved human intelligence and operational coordination," he said, adding, "The declining trend in violence continues in the current year with 35.29 % decline in incidents in 2012 compared to 2011. Also there has been a decrease in civilian and security force casualties by 51. 61% and 54.54% respectively in the State."