Pro-Khalistan elements in Canada and the US have been using “control rooms” for giving directions to foot soldiers to carry out targeted killings and terror strikes in various states like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which has been chasing terror modules in Canada, US, Germany and Australia over the years found that many of the calls for protests, issuing threats, hatching conspiracies and exchanging information were being routed through certain control centres set up in South America, Spain, Canada and Australia to escape surveillance by Indian agencies.
These control centres were also used by such elements to maintain secrecy from sleuths and immunity from Indian courts after carrying out terror attack, like the 2022 RPG attack in Mohali, and several targeted killings.
Further probe by the NIA revealed that the setting up of these control centres was originally done by the criminal gangs run by Lawrence Bishnoi and his associates like Goldy Brar in Canada. The mushrooming of such control centres took place as extortions and threats back home in Punjab and neighbouring states started filling coffers of the absconding gangsters using hawala channels.
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“A control centre didn’t really need too much manpower. Given the technological advancements in communication, even a single person could take advantage of the very sophisticated communication network that was built up,” said an intelligence official.
Soon, sleuths noticed that it was not just the extortion rackets or criminal activities that were masking identities of such networks, but gradually the terror nodes also collaborated with them to issue threats and carry out terror operations.
It is at this stage, Lawrence’s network came in contact with pro-Khalistan terror groups being run from Pakistan, Canada and Europe, looking for support.
“The overlap was natural,” said an investigator. “Soon, the pro-Khalistan threat which had dimming ground support came to life with the criminal terror nexus becoming lethal on foreign shores.”
This became the basis on which the NIA booked criminals like Lawrence, Brar and others under the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.