A banned Khalistani organisation headed by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who was designated as a terrorist by India in July 2020, incited Muslims, Tamils and Christians from Manipur to secede from India, a background note from intelligence agencies which formed part of a Home Ministry tribunal order has said.
The banned organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) also planned terror activities that include threats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the background note said in the tribunal order, which the government published in a gazette notification extending the ban on SFJ for another five years.
"Dividing people on communal lines by provoking minority communities against the other communities has become a major tool for SFJ to push up its anti-India agenda. SFJ have been inciting the Christian community in Manipur to raise their voices for a 'separate country', the people of Tamil Nadu to raise flags of 'Dravidstan' and have been stoking Muslim sentiments by raising the bogey of 'minority persecution' and exhorted Muslims of India to carve out a separate 'Urduistan'," the note prepared by intelligence agencies said.
"Further, SFJ urged the Dalits of India to extend support for its secessionist exercise, citing their 'persecution' in the hands of the Indian government. SFJ has also been involved in provoking the farmers of Punjab and Haryana over farm bills," it said.
The valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of the state that shares an open border with Myanmar, have been fighting since May 2023 over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation. Major border fencing work started only recently.
A majority of the Meiteis are Hindus, while some are Christians and Meitei Pangals (Muslims). The Kuki tribes are Christians.
Other major tribes such as the Nagas are also Christians. The Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM) has been in talks with the Centre for a long time.
Of the 39 terrorist organisations banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), eight are Meitei outfits from Manipur such as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL).
The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis whose kindred tribes live in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram, want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.
The background note by intelligence agencies that said the SFJ has been "inciting" Christians in Manipur "to raise their voices for a separate country" brings a significant, new perspective on the Manipur issue.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who was designated as a terrorist by India in July 2020
In May 2024, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged a plot "to carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal."
"There will be more trouble. But don't worry about it," she told Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star in May 2024.
Three months later, she was ousted and forced to leave her country. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who returned from the US, was made the head of the interim government in Bangladesh.
The background note said one of the objectives of the SFJ is "aiding, abetting and instigating violence to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. It also supports the dissolution of India into several smaller states such as Punjab (Khalistan), Kashmir, South India (Dravidstan), Muslim state (Urduistan), separate state for Christians from Manipur."
"SFJ has also been inciting Sikh personnel in army and police forces to desert. SFJ has been colluding with gangsters, terrorists and other radical elements including Kashmiri separatists. Besides, SFJ continues to receive support from Pakistan. Of late, SFJ has also been inciting Muslims, Tamils and Christians from Manipur to secede from India. Currently, around 104 cases have been registered against SFJ activists or sympathizers in India by state or UT police and NIA under various sections of UA(P)A, 1967; IPC; Arms Act, 1959; IT Act, 2000 and various other applicable laws," the background note prepared by intelligence agencies said.
Over 250 people have died and 50,000 have been internally displaced in the Manipur violence.
Imphal valley as seen from Cheirao Ching (hill)
Kuki-Zo Leader's Canada Speech Row
A speech by the leader of a Canada-based Kuki-Zo tribes group from Manipur over the ethnic violence back home had sparked a massive controversy in August 2023, three months after the ethnic clashes began in the border state. The event in early August was held at the same gurdwara in Canada's Surrey, whose chief and Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by unidentified people in June 2023.
Lien Gangte, the Canada chapter chief of the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) which represented the newly coined nomenclature 'Kuki-Zo' after May 2023, in his address condemned what he called "attacks on minorities in India" and asked Canada for "all possible help". NAMTA had posted a video of the event on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) on August 7, 2023.
It deleted the videos much later when the row between India and Canada surfaced following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claim that "Indian government agents" were involved in the killing of the Khalistani terrorist Nijjar.
A Kuki-Zo communications professional who had been tracking the Manipur crisis told NDTV then that the NAMTA video was blown out of proportion, and its critics were forcing a conspiracy where none existed. The video came out in early August 2023, and no one had any problem with it until the Canada-India row over Nijjar's killing started a month later.
"This talk of NAMTA's association with Khalistanis is a big lie. It has no credibility whatsoever except for troll handles posting this. Tomorrow, if trolls start calling you a terrorist, you will have to give a statement?" the communications professional told NDTV, requesting anonymity.
104 Cases Against Khalistani Terrorist
In the tribunal order, India spelt out the "seriousness" of the ongoing investigation against SFJ ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the US. SFJ chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has 104 cases filed against him across India. The government has listed a long list of subversive activities carried out by the group that include threats to PM Modi, Amit Shah and Ajit Doval.
"Pannun is reported to have raised substantial funds for commission of terrorist acts and killings of important leaders, public figures and functionaries to overawe the government and the Indian public at large and intends to use the same for commission of terrorist acts for the ultimate objective of creation of Khalistan," the background note said.
The government said the SFJ claims to have prepared a list of children of police officers and politicians who are studying abroad. They are to be used as bargaining chips if its activists are tortured, the government said.
Photographs of Indian diplomats - including that of Ambassador Vikram Duraiswami, former ambassador Tranajit Singh Sandhu and several other diplomats - were circulated by SFJ last year, making them vulnerable.
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