US declares Babbar Khalsa ‘risk’ to its interests, personnel

New York: In a blow to the Khalistan movement, President Donald Trump’s adminsitration has declared the Babbar Khalsa International terrorist group a “risk to the US personnel and interests overseas”.

The National Strategy for Counterterrorism unveiled in Washington on Thursday said that Babbar Khalsa International “is responsible for significant terrorist attacks in India and elsewhere that have claimed the lives of innocent civilians”.

The document also lists Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) among organisations that are a potential threat to the US. The US State and Treasury Departments had listed the Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation as terrorist organisations in 2002 and the LeT in 2001. The strategy document released by US National Security Adviser John Bolton takes a hard look at not only terrorists directly posing a threat to the US, but also at “separatist movements overseas whose use of violence and intent to destabilise societies”.

Its primary focus, though, was on the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda and their affiliates, and terrorist groups linked to Iran. Both IS and Al Qaeda “will probably remain the most frequent form of radical Islamist terrorism in the US for the next several years”, it said. It said that groups like the Babbar Khalsa International and LeT may avoid targeting the US now for tactical reason, but still posed risks to it abroad. About groups like the Babbar Khalsa International, it said they “may avoid or deprioritise targeting US interests for now to avoid detracting from their core goals but frequently conduct assassinations and bombings against major economic, political, and social targets, heightening the risk to United States personnel and interests overseas”. (IANS)