The Hindu : Efforts on to get Babbar Khalsa activist from France

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 11, 2004

National

National

Efforts on to get Babbar Khalsa activist from France

By Praveen Swami

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 10. India has initiated efforts to secure the return of a top Babbar Khalsa International terrorist, Mehal Singh Babbar, from Paris. One of the two principal leaders of the terrorist group, he is believed to have left for France from Pakistan late last year.

Mehal Singh was spotted in Paris by Indian intelligence sources last year. He was staying at the home of his son, Devinder Singh, who has been living in France for long, and is not known to have any connection with Khalistan insurgency. Mehal Singh's wife has had no role in terrorist activities and she now works as in the langar (community kitchen) at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Sources in the Government told The Hindu that records of Mehal Singh's 14-year service in the Indian Air Force had been made over to the French authorities, along with the Punjab police records which charge him with organising dozens of terrorist acts. It is unclear, however, if these records include clear-cut evidence, including fingerprints that can help the French authorities determine if the person spotted in Paris is indeed Mehal Singh.

In the list of 20

Earlier, India had demanded Mehal Singh's extradition from Pakistan. He figured in the list of 20 top terrorists New Delhi had demanded in the wake of the December, 2001 terrorist attack on the Parliament House.

At that time, he was believed to have been staying at a safe house in Lahore, along with the Babbar Khalsa's supreme leader, Wadhawa Singh Babbar, who, Indian officials say, is still in Lahore.

The officials also say that Mehal Singh's decision to leave Pakistan was prompted by simmering differences with Wadhawa Singh. Over the past several years, overseas Sikh backers of the Khalistan movement broke ranks, resulting in contributions to the organisation diminishing sharply. Fights broke out between Wadhawa Singh and Mehal Singh over the use of these limited resources, and over the direction the Babbar Khalsa ought to take in changed times.

Disputes in the Babbar Khalsa leadership could be traced to conflicting claims to the top slot in the organisation. Mehal Singh took joint charge soon after the killing of his brother, Sukhdev Singh Babbar, in 1993. The Punjab police killed Sukhdev Singh in Patiala. Revelations that he lived an opulent life, posing as a contractor, sent shockwaves through the organisation, which draws its ranks from an ultra-conservative and puritanical religious sect, the `Akhand Kirtani Jatha.'

Mehal Singh's leadership was disputed by those who argued that he had not personally engaged in armed activity for the organisation, and that his brother had betrayed its principles.

In contrast, Wadhawa Singh had a greater frontline role in terrorism, and is believed to have personally supervised the assassination of the former Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh. He is also thought to have organised the recent escape of the assassination-accused, Jagtar Singh Hawara, from the Burail jail in Chandigarh.

Efforts by India to act against the Khalistan terrorists in the West have had mixed outcomes.

Although Germany deported Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to India some years ago, other demands for extradition have been in vain. Efforts to secure Mukhtiar Singh and Paramjit Singh, International Sikh Youth Federation activists, who India claims were involved in bomb plots in 2001, were shot down recently by a tribunal in the United Kingdom.

In Mehal Singh's case, however, the investigators are optimistic. ``The French have been lobbying for arms contracts in India,'' a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official said, adding ``this provides us with some leverage to look after our own interests.''

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National