Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar shot dead in Pakistan’s Lahore
Chandigarh: Wanted Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar was reportedly shot dead by two unidentified gunmen in Johar town of Lahore in Pakistan on Saturday. He was gunned down by two motorcycle-borne men when he was taking a walk in his housing society, the sources said. Hailing from Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, Panjwar, 63, was heading the banned Khalistan Commando Force-Panjwar group and was involved in drug and weapons smuggling and other terror activities when he was designated as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in July 2020.
Panjwar was accused of being the “mastermind” behind the 1999 bomb blast in Chandigarh’s Sector 34. He was wanted in several cases in India’s Punjab. According to police, he was actively involved in the smuggling of drugs in the state. Though he was inactive for the last couple of years, Singh had been operating from Lahore and was involved in arranging arms training for youths in Pakistan. He was engaged in supplying arms and ammunition and subsequent infiltration into India for targeting VIPs and economic installations.
He was also involved in broadcasting highly seditious and separatist programmes on Radio Pakistan, intended to incite minorities against the Indian government. He was active in the smuggling of drugs and was a major conduit between smugglers and terrorists, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said in a notification that designated him a terrorist under UAPA.
“Panjwar’s complicity in promoting drug trade and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) operation in Punjab are well documented. Efforts are being made by his organisation KCF to reactive former militants, sleeper cells and also those on bail and it has been in favour of forming nexus with other forces hostile to India,” the ministry had said.
KCF came into existence in February 1986 and the modus-operandi of this organisation was to commit bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom for use to purchase sophisticated weapons for terrorist activities.
The banned outfit under the patronage of Paramjit Singh Panjwar was involved in various terrorist attacks in India, which include the following a bomb attack in October 1988, killig 10 Rai Sikhs at Firozpur and the killing of Major Gen. B. N. Kumar, according to the ministry.