Indian govt declares Khalistan Tiger Force, Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force as terror organisations under UAPA

The Ministry of Home Affairs also named Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, currently based in Pakistan and affiliated to Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), as a terrorist.

"One more individual -Harwinder Singh Sandhu@Rinda declared as terrorist today. He has been associated with terrorist organization Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and is presently based in Lahore, Pakistan under the patronage of cross border agencies and has been found involved in various terrorist activities particularly in Punjab. With this declaration, now there are 54 designated terrorists in the IVth Schedule of UAPA," read a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Some crucial facts about the two new banned terror outfits:

Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF): It is a militant outfit and it aims to revive terrorism in Punjab and challenges the territorial integrity, unity, national security and sovereignty of India and promotes various acts of terrorism, including targeted killings in Punjab.

Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznavi Force (JKGF): It has been found involved in infiltration bids, narcotics and weapon smuggling and carrying out terror attacks in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

It draws its cadres from various terrorist organisations, such as Lashker-E-Taiba, Jaish-E-Mohammed, Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul—Jehad-E-Islami etc.

What is UAPA?

In furtherance to India’s Zero Tolerance policy towards terrorism, the Central Government amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in August 2019 to include the provision of designating an individual as terrorist.

Prior to this amendment, only organizations could be designated as terrorist organization.

By invoking the said amended provision, the Central Government had designated 53 individuals as terrorists.