Khalistani separatist arrested in Motihari

Motihari/New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in coordination with Motihari police, arrested Khalistani separatist Kashmir Singh Galwaddi alias Balbir Singh from the Town police station area in Motihari on Sunday.Galwaddi, a resident of Galwaddi under Ludhiana police station in Punjab and son of Hari Singh, was a key associate of foreign-based Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist Harwinder Singh Sandhu, also known as Rinda. He was also one of the prisoners who escaped during the 2016 Nabha jailbreak.He had been evading arrest for a long time and had reportedly been hiding in Nepal before entering Indian territory. The NIA had declared him a proclaimed offender in a 2022 Khalistani terror conspiracy case and had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for information leading to his capture."He was located and arrested in Motihari," said East Champaran SP Swarn Prabhat. "He has been taken into custody by the NIA for further investigation," he added.Kashmir Singh is accused of promoting terrorist activities across different regions of the country. According to NIA sources, he was a key operative in BKI and Rinda's terror network, particularly in Nepal, where he is believed to have conspired with and provided shelter, logistics support, and terror funds to aides of Khalistani terrorists. These aides had fled to Nepal after carrying out terror acts in India, including the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack at the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters.The case also exposed a wider terror-criminal nexus, revealing that Khalistani outfits such as BKI, Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), in collaboration with organised criminal gangs, were involved in smuggling arms, ammunition, explosives, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) across the border to execute terror attacks in various parts of the country.So far, the NIA has chargesheeted 15 accused in the case. In August 2024, the agency secured the extradition of another accused, Tarsem Singh, brother of terrorist Landa, from the UAE and filed a third supplementary chargesheet against him in Dec.(With inputs from New Delhi bureau)