Khalistan Tiger Force

The Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) is a group the Government of India designated a “terrorist organisation” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on 17 February 2023. What is known about it comes mostly from the Indian state, so what follows is attributed.

Origins and leaders: Wikipedia says Jagtar Singh Tara, a former member of Babbar Khalsa International, formed it, and The Tribune calls him its chief. Tara is serving a life sentence for his part in the 1995 assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, escaped from jail in 2004 and was arrested again in Thailand in 2015. The Home Ministry says the KTF came into existence in 2011 as an offshoot of Babbar Khalsa International. It says the group aims to revive terrorism in Punjab to create a separate Khalistan, and names Hardeep Singh Nijjar as its operational chief (Swarajya).

Key moments:

• November 2011: the KTF claimed that explosives found in a car outside Ambala railway station were meant for a politician it linked to the 1984 killings of Sikhs.
• 12 April 2023: the KTF claimed responsibility for the killing of four soldiers at Bathinda, but police denied the group was involved.
• May 2024: a court acquitted Tara in a UAPA and Arms Act case registered at Goraya police station in 2012. The Tribune notes this did not mean his release, since he is serving a life term.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar: India accused Nijjar, a Surrey leader of Sikhs for Justice, of leading the KTF. He denied it, said he worked for Khalistan by peaceful means, and in a 2016 letter to Justin Trudeau called the accusations “fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated”. He was shot dead in the car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey on 18 June 2023. On 18 September 2023 Trudeau told Parliament that Canadian agencies were pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing. The RCMP charged three Indian nationals with first-degree murder in May 2024, and in October 2024 Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, saying it had given India evidence linking its agents to the murders. India called the claims “preposterous”.

Where it stands: The sources opened for this page do not describe any KTF activity after 2023.