Khalistan Liberation Force - KLF

KLF

The KLF was responsible for several bombings of civilian targets in India during the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes in conjunction with Kashmir separatists.

KLF was among the Sikh groups that claimed responsibility for the 1991 kidnapping of the Romanian chargé d'affaires in New Delhi, Liviu Radu. This appeared to be retaliation for Romanian arrests of KLF members suspected of the attempted assassination of Julio Ribeiro, 62, the Indian ambassador to Romania, in Bucharest. Radu was released unharmed after Sikh politicians criticized the action.

In the year 1991, Khalistan Liberation Force along with Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan and Dr. Sohan Singh (Head of Panthic Committee) etc. participated in the secret peace negotiations with India in the city of Ludhiana. These meetings were initiated by Union Minister of State for Home Subodh Kant Sahay on the orders of the (then) Prime Minister of India Chandra Shekhar. It is said that this peace effort was sabotaged by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. Former Indian Intelligence Bureau Joint Director, Maloy Krishna Dhar stated in a press report published by The Hindu that “Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her ISI advisers were determined not to let peace succeed. Pakistan’s covert war in Jammu and Kashmir had exploded in 1990, and its establishment understood that the Punjab conflict tied down our troops, and threatened our logistical lines into Jammu and Kashmir.”

The KLF was listed in 1995 one of the 4 "major militant groups" in the Khalistan movement.

India, in the 1995 era, alleged that Pakistan provided Sikh militants with shelter and support. The separatist movement was largely crushed in the mid 1990s.

In 1999 it was reported that former KLF operative Manjinder Singh Issi, who took part in the Radu kidnapping, became disillusioned with KLF when he realized that its Pakistani supporters were more interested in disruptive violence in Punjab than Sikh autonomy.

Arrests still occur as of 2005.

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