15 European Parliament members discuss Khalistan threat to Europe

A briefing on 4th December attended by 15 MEPs discussed the activities of Khalistani groups in Europe and the threat they could pose to the European Union. The banned Khalistani groups in India and Europe were approaching International Organizations like the United Nations and European Parliament. The briefing stressed that the MEPs needed to be careful when they received requests for meetings from such groups and people.

The group highlighted their willingness to organize further briefings with counter parts from Parliament of India to discuss ways and methods of combating terrorist groups like the Khalistanis.

In October, the European Presidency, replying to a question in the parliament noted that the European Union strongly opposes the use of force to attempt to weaken the existing democratic institutions of States such as India. This is why the Council agreed in 2005 to include the ‘Khalistan Zindabad Force – KZF’ on the list of certain persons and entities subject to specific restrictive measures with a view to combating terrorism. When this list was reviewed in June 2009, the Council decided to maintain the KZF on the list.

EU presidency also held the view that the State election in 2007 resulted in putting back the Akali Dal party (representing exclusively the interests of the Sikhs) at the helm. Despite irregular reports on risks related to a surviving network of Sikh activism, the Commission’s analysis is that the ideology that inspired a decade and a half of violence in Punjab has been rejected by the population. As a consequence, (the commission feels that) there is no need to prevail upon European countries not to support extremists in Khalistan. In any event, it is first for India to act on any concern it could have about this issue. This being said, it should be recalled that India has recently referred to the EU Member States’ solidarity in this issue at the time as both laudable and useful.

The possibility of Al Qaeda and Khalistan (Sikh) terrorists nexus issue had come up in EU parliament in 2008. MEP WiesÅ‚aw Stefan Kuc had asked “slamic terrorist groups affiliated to Al Qaeda and Khalistan (Sikh) terrorists continue to operate from Pakistan. Does the Commission foresee a situation in which Khalistani terrorists might join with Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorist groups to destabilise India and conduct terrorist activities in Europe?’

There are already linkages between the Sikh terrorists and Islamic terrorist in Kashmir, especially the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Lashkar-e-Toiba has active links with Al Qaeda.

The group agreed to meet in January 2010 to examine the issue further and looked forward to receiving further information including briefings about the Khalistan movement and methods necessary for combating the agenda of the Khalistani groups.

Even though this was the European Presidency stand, the members countries are not bounded by it. Earlier, the parliament had faced a question ” (if) the Commission intend to prevail upon European countries not to support extremists in Khalistan who are trying to use religion to destabilise the Indian Punjab? If so, how?’ Other than the usual culprits like Canada, US, Pakistan and UK, there are other countries who seem to host the Khalistani elements. Germany, France, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland are the other European nations in addition to UK.