FBI busts US-based Sikh extremist ring that targeted Rajiv Gandhi, other politicians

For all the high-level diplomatic rituals acted out between India and the United States in the last several months, it was ultimately the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that scored the most telling blow for improved relations between the two countries on the eve of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's visit.In a single sweep, the FBI penetrated, busted and arrested members of a US-based extremist Sikh assassination ring which had targeted not only Rajiv Gandhi, but other leading Indian politicians as well. The FBI move not only gave other radical groups with similar intentions notice that they are under continuous surveillance but also helped snuff out some of the much bally-hooed fear in India that an American 'foreign hand' is out to undermine the integrity and stability of the subcontinent.An India Today investigation reveals that while the American 'Sting' operation against the radical Sikh group was a dramatic success in that it led to the capture of the ringleader, Gurpratap Singh Birk, 35, and four co-conspirators, the arrests in New Orleans also blew the cover off a much larger FBI clandestine operation aimed at nabbing at least two dozen Sikh extremists, including Birk, who were shortly to commence a course in guerrilla warfare and explosives training designed to enable them to carry out various assassinations and widespread terrorist bombings throughout India-starting with the planned murder of Rajiv Gandhi during his US visit.The FBI with the help of the State Department and other US law enforcement agencies had secretly infiltrated this wider conspiracy which agents refer to as the 'Gandhi plot'. The FBI-planned manoeuvre was, however, thrown out of gear with Birk's arrest in New Orleans on charges that he was there to assassinate Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Birk, Suki, Virender and Jasbir Sandhu: Pre-empted attackThe American 'Sting' operation against the radical Sikh group was dramatic success but the arrests in New Orleans also blew the cover off all much larger FBI clandestine operation aimed at nabbing at least two dozen Sikh extremists who planned to carry out various assassinations and widespread terrorist bombings throughout India. The plot was but an offshoot of the wider 'Gandhi plot' and the arrests, made two days before the training camp was scheduled to begin, alarmed other terrorists into flight. "In a way it was unfortunate." said US Chief Attorney Ronald Depetris, who had been monitoring the FBI's operation from New York."The New Orleans arrests really blew the wider undercover operation. We could have nabbed them all. But then Mr Bhajan Lal's life was in danger. We had no choice." He added that investigations were still in progress.The arrests of the five Sikh extremists in New Orleans are a grim pointer to the actual threat to Rajiv Gandhi's life. According to intelligence sources small bands of determined and mobilised Sikh extremists are operating as fragmented groups with no apparent central chain of command, but with a well identified purpose. Following the assassination of Mrs Gandhi, the Indian Government alerted US intelligence agencies about their well founded suspicions that some of the financing of militant Sikh activity in India originated from US-based Sikh extremist organisations. President Reagan was reported to be personally concerned about increasing terrorism in India and had privately pledged the cooperation of US law enforcement authorities to combat it. One important tool that was to be used for this purpose was the FBI's crack counter-intelligence and anti-terrorist unit - a specially trained force.Gurpratap Birk, alias 'John Singh,' was hardly the composite of the run of the mill terrorist. Making between $45,000 and $60,000 (Rs 5.6 lakh-7.5 lakh) a year and a resident of Brooklyn, New York, he worked as a software engineer for the Automated Tools Co, an outfit specialising in leasing computerised tool collection equipment. The group wanted to overthrow the Government of India by violent means and to create a loss of confidence in the present system through bombing a nuclear power plant, bridges, hotels and public buildings.He came to New York about three years ago, after obtaining a doctorate in engineering from London. Birk holds a British passport, and his wife and children still live in London. "He was very well spoken, very knowledgeable," says Fred Rossetti, an executive working with the same firm, who knew Birk and often had lunch with him. "It's hard for me to think of him as a terrorist. He was shy, well-mannered and amusing." The only time Rossetti said he saw Birk with a turban was when he appeared on a local television news show, after Mrs Gandhi's assassination and made statements that appeared to condone the murder. Birk's television appearance did not go unnoticed by the FBI's special agents who had been alerted to keep a vigilant eye on Sikh terrorist activities. Law enforcement authorities are reluctant to reveal much about the circumstances under which they were tipped off about Birk's underground activities, but according to one source, Birk first approached a gunrunner, who chanced to be an undercover informant for the FBI, in early November "and made some vague enquiries about paramilitary commando training". The FBI then proceeded to lay the trap.Meanwhile, undercover FBI agents and informants gained the confidence of Birk and some of his cronies, Lal Singh and Ammand Singh, both casual workers in their mid-twenties, residing in New York. They set up a meeting between them and a secret agent code-named 'A' in the FBI's reports. The agent is a top counter-terrorism intelligence expert, schooled in urban and guerrilla warfare, explosives and automatic weapons who works closely with the FBI. He is a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honour for Bravery. Rajiv GandhiThe undercover agents, posing as Birk's collaborators met him and Lal Singh in a hotel room in New York City on January 26. The entire proceedings were videotaped by concealed FBI cameras. 'A' told Birk and Singh that he headed a mercenary gun-running and guerrilla training organisation based in Birmingham, Alabama, and that he might be able to meet their needs.Taking their cue, Birk and Singh told 'A' that their group wanted to overthrow the Government of India by violent means. One tactic to be employed was to create a loss of confidence in the present system through bombing strategic locations in India - a nuclear power plant, bridges, hotels, public buildings. Also confiding their plan to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi and other political figures, Birk and Singh asked 'A' to provide the necessary military training to implement such plans. They requested specific training in the use of explosives, automatic weapons, chemical warfare and urban guerrilla tactics. According to their plan, 'A' would train a cadre of men in the US, following which he would then travel to India in the capacity of the group's adviser, until such time as they seemed proficient enough to operate on their own. This initial cadre would, in turn, train others. At the same meeting Birk and Singh are also recorded to have asked 'A' to obtain C-4 plastic explosives for them as well as false US passports to facilitate exit and entry into India for members of the terrorist group.Following this meeting, the FBI put Birk and his group under comprehensive surveillance including telephone taps. The next meeting between the earlier three and Ammand Singh again took place in a hotel on February 20. Birk acted as spokesman, while conferring regularly with the other two in Punjabi. 'A' was subsequently given dates and deadlines. Birk was anxious that the initial phase be completed by May 10. 'A' was asked to make provision for smuggling arms and explosives into India, adding that they needed explosives sufficient to blow up the size of Tri-boro, Brooklyn or the Queensboro bridges and a large 36-storey building. The weapons order included small arms and machine-guns, particularly the Ingram 9mm, Mach-10, and grenade launchers. 'A' said he would be able to supply them.During the course of subsequent telephonic conversations between 'A', Birk and Singh from February 20 to April 27, Birk revealed that they had found a remote, wooded site in Columbia, New Jersey, appropriate for the training. It was during this drive to Columbia that Birk asked 'A' to find someone to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. The group also revealed they wanted at first to do this in India, but changed their plan when the prime minister's visit to the US was announced for June. In a bid to lead them on, the agent recommended three options - the costs, merits and feasibility of which were relatively weighed by Birk and Singh, who then made their selection. Details of the payment were' left till later.The arrests however created a new set of problems. Right until the moment the suspects were nabbed, opinion remained divided between law enforcement authorities about the timeliness of the action. The die was now cast. About two dozen Sikh terrorists were to reach Columbia, New Jersey, to begin training on May 6. 'A' was to deliver the weapons and explosives on that day. But 'A' promised to do more than that. According to a hidden agenda worked out by the FBI, and the Secret Service, the entire site would be secretly wired with tape-recorders and cameras to record the evidence. Plans had been made by the FBI, the US Attorney in New York, the New Jersey Police, and the Secret Service to raid the training camp on May 8 and arrest the terrorists. But there developed a twisted subplot that created an unforeseen diversion in the FBI's plans to unravel the wider 'Gandhi plot'.Bhajan Lal had arrived in New Orleans on April 29 for eye surgery. Upon completion of the lens implant at the Louisiana State University Medical Center, Lal was moved to the Meridien Hotel, where he was expected to spend two weeks for follow-up treatment. The Indian Embassy had routinely cautioned the State Department that Lal's name had figured on various 'hit lists' compiled by radical Sikh organisations and that he would require protection. The State Department informed the New Orleans FBI office that Lal was to be treated as an "Internationally protected official". The FBI in turn, notified the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), which immediately put into action a local 'risk assessment programme.' But little did these officials know - until May 3 - that a conspiracy had been hatched to kill Bhajan Lal. Birk and associates, having discovered that Lal was in New Orleans, worked out a plan to murder him.Birk seemed confident that the mercenary organisation led by 'A' could be relied upon to help in a quick kill. 'A' put Birk and an accomplice, Sukhvinder 'Suki' Singh, 30, another New York resident, in touch with Thomas Morris, a Birmingham-based FBI under cover special agent, who, 'A' said, would help the Sikhs with the Bhajan Lal murder. Birk and Suki travelled to mingham and contacted Morris on the phone, telling him that they wanted to hire a hit man to assassinate an Indian official in New Orleans. Morris, who was duly recording the conversation, said that none was available. The two Sikhs responded by saying that they would do the job themselves, and asked Morris to help them purchase a .45 revolver.Bhajan LalIn order to create a detailed paper trail and a record that would carry weight in a court of law, as evidence of a murder conspiracy, Morris directed Suki and Birk to another undercover FBI informant in Birmingham for the purchase of the weapon.Subsequently, the two Sikhs bought a 45 calibre semi-automatic pistol on May 4. An FBI agent, monitoring the scheme, noted the serial number of the weapon. Birk and Suki left Birmingham by 1 p.m.. in a dark-grey Celebrity sedan. Under the impression that Morris as well as the gun dealers they had dealt with were 'A's, contacts, and therefore fellow conspirators. Birk and Suki had no reservations about taking them into full uninhibited confidence.But on May 3, as soon as Birk contacted Morris and asked for a 'hit man', the FBI office in Birmingham, acting on information given by Birk, contacted the FBI office in New Orleans. The nopd was advised to strengthen their guard. Until then Lal had a solitary Indian security guard to protect him. But on that day, 14 members of the NOPD's intelligence unit went into action. About half of them were detailed directly to protect Lal, and set up a command post outside his room. Sergeant Graig Jennings, of the NOPD intelligence cell, said in an interview: "We advised the minister in general about what was happening on May 3. But on May 4, after we learned that Birk and Suki had obtained a weapon and were on their way to New Orleans we went to Level 1 alert. We were now in constant touch with the FBI, the Secret Service, the State Department, and the US Attorney's office in New York and New Jersey. The Indian minister did not show much concern about the threat."NOPD officials had in fact, advised Lal to consider changing hotels and cancelling a dinner engagement with a friend for that night. However. Lal insisted on going out so the NOPD provided him with a police limousine with a follow-up car in tow. He left at 7.30 p.m. and returned around 9.45 p.m. Within minutes of Lal's return, NOPD officers arrested four suspects on the sidewalk outside the hotel. The four included Birk, Suki, and Jasbir Sandhu, 24, Virender Singh, 25, also of New York. Eight days later, the police arrested Jatinder Singh Ahluwalia, a New Orleans taxi-driver, who had been seen consorting with the other four suspects on the night of May 4. The arrests made that night can be attributed to the presence of mind of an unusually alert Indian government official, who had reached Lal's hotel earlier during the day.While on his way out through the hotel lobby facing the New Orleans French Quarter. the official had spotted suspicious characters who appeared to be of Indian origin. They were stalking the hotel from across the street. Without further ado, he informed the police. According to a filed report, one of the arresting officers spoke to Virender Singh shortly after he was detained. The officer quizzed Singh about what he was doing in New Orleans. "Singh, who appeared nervous, nodded at Jasbir Sandhu's direction, and stated: 'We're together. He does not speak good English,' asking: 'Do you want me to tell you the truth?' The arresting officer replied: 'Yes, please'. Singh stated: 'We are here to hurt him.' The arresting officer then asked: 'The man in the hotel?' To which, Singh nodded in affirmation, refusing to answer any further questions."The following day, on obtaining a legal warrant, police searching the car in which Birk and Suki had travelled to New Orleans, found the .45 semiautomatic under the right front seat, a 38 calibre colt, two daggers, a kirpan, a map of New Orleans with a circle around the area Bhajan Lal was staying, as well as several newspaper photographs of Lal.The arrests, however, created a new set of problems. Right until the moment the suspects were nabbed, opinion remained divided between law enforcement authorities about the timeliness of the action. One school of thought held that the gang should have been arrested only during the actual murder attempt. Sergeant Jennings believed that would have been running too great a risk. "Birk and his crew were out there making a final reconnaissance. The next step for them would have been the murder attempt. They had no local address or any overnight bookings. My guess is, they wanted to make a quick hit and drive back the same day, without leaving a paper trail."Even after the arrests, the authorities were unable to take a decision whether to indict the four immediately, or let them off without so much as an inkling that the wider 'Gandhi plot' had been penetrated and capture them later at the training camp. On May 6, about 20 State Department security personnel and officials arrived in New Orleans for a high-level strategy session that lasted two days. The authorities were in agreement that the failure of Birk and his associates to return to New York had probably already roused the suspicions of many of the other conspirators, spurring them to flee. They decided to wait until May 13 before announcing the arrests. The delay would also give the FBI's New York office adequate time to prepare a detailed case indicting Birk, Lal Singh and Ammand Singh on charges of attempting to assiassinate Rajiv Gandhi.Ahluwalia, the New Orleans taxi-driver who was seen on May 4 outside Lal's hotel, was trach down and finally arrested in his home by FBI agent son May l2, the authorities had deliberately decided to stall his arrest since he was a local resident and the news would have been given unwanted publicity in the local papers - thereby jeopardising the deliberate black-out that the FBI wanted so carefully to maintain. Ahluwalia, who is otherwise a clean-shaven sikh, insisted on sporting a turban at the time of his arrest.On May 13, nearly ten days after the original arrests, US prosecutors in New York and New Orleans issued simultaneous announcements to the effect that they had foiled a plot by Sikh terrorists to assassinate Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Birk will be tried on separate charges in both states. Meanwhile, the conspirators are being held without bond. The authorities fear that if he is freed on bail. Birk is likely to flee the country. His passport bears witness to his travels in virtually every country in Europe.SIKH EXTREMISTS: THE US NETWORK US and Indian intelligence authorities are convinced that a small minority of Sikhs, who are determined to create Khalistan, have spawned small, scattered networks of fragmented terrorist organisations with no centralised chain of command. These terrorist cells have a central purpose but deliberately avoid contact with one another. There is no apparent centralised brain masterminding their activities either.Members of these groups come from varied economic and class backgrounds. While it is difficult to pin down where specific sums of money for specific purposes come from, the general sources of their finance are no secret.The international Sikh community, as enterprising and innovative as its Indian counterpart, is awash in money. Sikh millionaires - engineers, traders, physicians - abound all over the world and donate generously to causes in gurudwaras. Many of the North American gurudwaras now out of bounds for Hindu worshippers, have been taken over by radical elements who raise funds for various causes.According to intelligence sources, both extreme right wing and left wing ideologues are involved in fuelling the Khalistan cause, aimed at destabilising Punjab and India. Intelligence briefs reveal that there are three known terrorist training camps in Pakistan, just across the Indian border.The closest one is near Gurdaspur, where Sikh guerrillas are being trained by Pakistani army officers. About 200 guerrillas from these camps are believed to have crossed the border into India, shortly before the waves of terrorist bombings rocked the country.The Government of India has picked up a 'hit list' of Indian politicians to be assassinated, including Rajiv Gandhi. Heading the list is the name of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi, crossed out in red ink.The Indian Government is also apprehensive about communist infiltration of the Sikh movement in Punjab, but is uncertain as to whether the Soviets are playing an active role in the destabilisation campaign.The Indian Government recently captured a communist document prepared by a militant Sikh extremist, who has been in and out of England. The document is a Naxalite blueprint for terrorism, guerrilla warfare and the consequent destabilisation of India, using Punjab as a stepping-stone into the larger subcontinent.The International Islamic Permanent Tribunal of Lahore, headed by Abdel Majid Turab Zamani, is described in one report as "a coordinating centre for radical MuslimKhalistani operations into the subcontinent." Zamani has recently stressed the need for "convergence between Indian Muslims and Sikhs for destroying the Indian nation state". The London branch of this tribunal is managed by Siddiqui, a member of the Islamo-Marxist "Muslim Research and Planning Institute".Al Nusrat, a Frankfurt-based Pakistani publication of Libyan-connected former PPP members, has published regular articles supporting Khalistan. Finances for Al Nusrat are apparently derived from the Islamic Council of Europe led by London-based Moazzan Ali, Pakistani member of the Jamaat-e-Islami.Sikh members of the Babbar Khalsa are believed to be receiving terrorist training from the plo and Red Brigade trainers at a camp in Canada, run by Jon Vanderhorst, one of the world's best-known freelance mercenaries.The camp is located in British Columbia, outside George, in the Okanagan Valley. Some of the extremist Sikhs arrested or identified in the 'Gandhi plot', that was uncovered by the FBI last month are believed to be hard core supporters of Talwinder Singh Parmar's Babbar Khalsa. They are understood to have travelled from Vancouver to Detroit and then into California and New York where all their movements and activity were monitored by US intelligence forces.The International Sikh Students Federation has been established as the student arm of the American-based World Sikh Organisation, now led by expatriate General J.S. Bhullar. The federation is a foreign regrouping of the All India Sikh Students Federation of Amrik Singh, who was killed during the storming of the Golden Temple along with Bhindranwale. One intelligence summary described Amrik Singh as the recipient of funds from the Russian KGB.A Vancouver-based Babbar Khalsa operative, by the name of Purewal, has travelled to Pakistan several times and is believed to be responsible for recruiting volunteers from both the Babbar and Dal Khalsas.The terrorist recruits reportedly travel on Pakistan International Airline flights from London into Pakistan and from there infiltrate India. The recent transistor bombings in Delhi are reported to have been carried out by these recruits as well as former Indian army Sikh extremists, many of whom were Bhindranwale's advisors.The leader of the Khalistan movement in West Germany is Triluk Singh who claims "good cooperation" between members of the Kashmir Liberation Front and the 4,000 Sikhs who live in Germany.About 1,000 West German Sikhs are reportedly active in the Khalistan movement. Triluk Singh and Canada-based Talwinder Singh Parmar, who was recently in Germany, are expected to visit a gathering of Sikhs. The meeting is also being billed as a major "strategy session". Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 17, 2013 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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FBI busts US-based Sikh extremist ring that targeted Rajiv Gandhi, other politicians

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation scored a telling blow for improved Indo-US ties by busting a US-based Sikh extremist assassination ring that had targeted Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as well as other leading Indian politicians.

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