Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IND33307 Country: India Date: 26 May 2008 Keywords: India – Jammu – Kotli Arjan Singh – Atarjit Singh – Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein. Questions 1. Please provide information on Atarjit Singh and his role and activities in the Khalistan Zindaband Movement (KZF). 2. Please provide information regarding the movements of Atarjit Singh in 2007, particularly July to September 2007. 3. Please provide a photograph of Atarjit Singh or any description of his physical appearance. 4. Please advise of the attitude of the authorities to Atarjit Singh. 5. Please provide any information on the activities of the KZF on the border with Pakistan, around the village Kotli Arjan Singh, Teh R.S. Pura in Jammu. 6. Please provide any information on the use of sexual assault and kidnapping children as a tool of the KZF. 7. Please provide information on the village Kotli Arjan Singh, Teh R.S. Pura in Jammu. 8. Please provide any other relevant information. RESPONSE 1. Please provide information on Atarjit Singh and his role and activities in the Khalistan Zindaband Movement (KZF). Several sources were located, dated between July 1997 and June 2005, all of which suggest that Atarjit (also Attarjit, Atarjeet, Attarjeet, and Attar Jeet) Singh was an active and high- profile member of the Khalistan Zindabad Force during this period. In various reports he is described as a “prominent terrorist”, “a KZF cadre and professional border crosser”, the “deputy chief” of the KZF, “one of the key persons of the Khalistan Zindabad Force”, and the “mastermind” behind 1997 KZF bombings in Pathankot that killed 11 people and injured 23. Most recently, three reports state that Atarjit Singh was arrested in June 2005 in relation to a bank robbery in south Punjab, released on bail on 23 June, and no further information was found to indicate what has happened to him since. Prior to that, several sources state that he was interrogated over his role in a 2004 jailbreak involving Sikh militants escaping from Burail jail, in Chandigahr. Of particular interest may be a 18 February 2004 report from the Tribune Online Edition, which claims that Atarjit planned to leave India “as he was not to be accepted back in the family”, although no reason is given as to why this might be the case. An October 2003 report located on the Church of the East website claims that Atarjit was among four men acquitted of involvement in a 1997 Jammu bus bombing, and two reports from October 1999 quote police sources claiming that he and the KZF were implicated in the bombing of the Jammu-Delhi express train. An April 1998 report and two July 1997 articles note Atarjit’s suspected role in the 1997 Pathankot bombings; detailed reports follow below (for Atarjit as a “prominent terrorist” and the Jammu-Delhi train bombing, see: ‘KZF behind blast, says Punjab DGP’ 1999, Tribune Online Edition, 14 November http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99nov14/head4.htm – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 9; and ‘Punjab ultras’ hand in Pooja Exp blast likely – DGP’ 1999, Indian Express, 15 November http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19991115/ige15023.html – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 10; for Atarjit as a “KZF cadre and professional border crosser”, and his alleged involvement in the Burail jailbreak, see: ‘Khalistan Zindabad Force’ (undated), South Asia Terrorism Portal website http://satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/punjab/terrorist_outfits/KZF.htm – Accessed 7 December 2007 – Attachment 7; Sharma, A. 2004, ‘Burail Jailbreak: Police find skeletons in Rana’s report’, Chandigahr Newsline, 16 April http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=81916 – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 3; Sharma, A. 2004, ‘Under escape plan, Hawara and Co partied hard’, Chandigahr Newsline, 17 April http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=82021 – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 4; for Atarjit as a “key person” in the KZF and for his claim that he could not return to his family, see: Sharma, S. 2004, ‘Hawara’s “border guide” quizzed for escape clues’, Tribune Online Edition, 11 February http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040211/cth1.htm – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 5; and for Atarjit as the “deputy chief” of the KZF and the “mastermind” of the Pathankot bombings, see: Taggar, R. 1998, ‘Biography of an unexploded bomb’, Indian Express, 9 April http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980409/09950334.html – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 11; ‘Brain behind Pathankot blasts held’ 1997, Indian Express, 22 July http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19970723/20450263.html – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 12; and ‘Punjab cops break bus blast cases, arrest KZF deputy chief’ 1997, Rediff on the Net, 22 July http://www.rediff.com/news/jul/22punj.htm – Accessed 21 May 2008 – Attachment 13). The most recent reports concerning Atarjit Singh date from June 2005, one in the Ludhiana Newsline and the other in the Tribune Online Edition. According to these reports, Atarjit was arrested by the Pathankot police after bomb blasts in Delhi theatres, and was subsequently handed over to the Haryana police in connection with a bank robbery (or ‘dacoity’). No reports were located indicating whether he was charged or tried with any offence, or whether he was subsequently held in custody. The Tribune report describes him as “an alleged militant of the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF)”, and goes on to note that “Atarjit Singh, a resident of the RS Pora area of Jammu, was earlier arrested by the Punjab police on the charge of carrying out a series of bomb blasts in Pathankot and its surrounding areas in 1997” (Pathankot is a city in Punjab, less than 100km from Teh R.S Pura). The Ludhiana Newsline report states that Atarjit was arrested in connection with the ‘dacoity’ at the Jalbehra (a village on the border of Punjab and Haryana) branch of Punjab National Bank. This report also provides background on Atarjit Singh, suggesting that his parents handed him over to the police, although this is not made entirely clear. The report also claims that Atarjit uses the alias “Bitoo”, “Bittu” or “Bittoo”, but searches for this name located no additional information. The report places Atarjit Singh in Burail jail between 1999 and October 2003: Atarjit confessed that he had also gone to Pakistan via Nepal and Bangkok and met Neeta at Lahore from where he was sent back to India with a consignment of weapons including AK 47, RDX, detonator, safety fuse battery, wireless set, safety fuse wire etc. and had buried them across the border near RS Pura. However, these were dug out by the road building department during construction of a road. While he was with his parents, they handed over to the police and he was implicated in several cases of bomb blasts in J&K, Jalandhar and also in Ambala. He was taken on remand by the police along with other four terrorists. But he stated that Neeta couldn’t be arrested and slipped away to Pakistan with his wife. Atarjit Bitoo stated that he was discharged in 1998 by the Sessions Judge Ambala, while he was in Burail jail in 1999 and was discharged from the jail in October 2003. He said that he was facing a case in Jammu District and Sessions Court and the next hearing is on June 9. He was again picked up by the Jammu &Kashmir police for interrogation in the Burail jail incident in which Jagtar alias Tara Paramjit alias Tyora who had assassinated Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh was involved, but was released after interrogation (Divakar, D. 2005, ‘Bank heist case solved, with a surprise’, Ludhiana Newsline, 3 June http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=132217 – Accessed 20 May 2008 – Attachment 1; ‘KZF militant arrested’ 2005, Tribune Online Edition, 3 June http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050603/punjab1.htm#11 – Accessed 20 May 2008 – Attachment 2). A 24 June article from the Tribune Online Edition states that Atarjeet Singh was released on bail on June 23. The report claims that Atarjeet’s parents “had alleged that the Ambala police had implicated his son in a false case”, and that “[t]he counsel for Atarjeet also stated in the court during the argument on bail application that the police had tried to implicate Atarjeet” in the case (‘Bail for bank robbery accused’ 2005, Tribune Online Edition, 24 June http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050624/haryana.htm#13 – Accessed 26 May 2008 – Attachment 40). Two April 2004 reports from the Chandigahr Newsline (dated 16 and 17 April) discuss Attarjit Singh’s relationship with Jagtar Singh Hawara, of the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh militant group, while the two were in Burail jail. The articles are mostly about Hawara’s January 2004 escape from prison with three fellow inmates (not Attarjit, who had already been released), but they also provide some information about Attarjit’s activities. The 16 April report notes that Attarjit is “close to Hawara”, and had been “segregated” from contact with him and that his cell had been searched in response to violent threats from Hawara, who is reported by the jail superintendent to have “started raising pro-Khalistan slogans and threatened to kill me and other jail officials”.