Lakhbir Singh Landa has over 30 instances registered towards him in several districts of Punjab. Picture Courtesy: News18 Hindi
Canada-based gangster Lakhbir Singh Landa has been designated an “individual terrorist” by the Ministry of Residence Affairs (MHA). The 33-year-old, a frontrunner of Khalistani group Babbar Khalsa Worldwide (BKI), has develop into the fifty fifth particular person to be recognized as a terrorist below the Illegal Actions Prevention Act (UAPA).
Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias ‘Landa’ has been accused of a number of crimes in India. In accordance with the MHA, he deliberate the rocket assault on the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in 2022 and has additionally performed a task in different terrorist actions.
Who’s the “dreaded” gangster Lakhbir Singh Landa? Why has MHA designated him a terrorist? Let’s take a better look.
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Who’s Lakhbir Singh Landa?
Born in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district in 1989, Landa has greater than 30 instances registered towards him in varied districts of the state, based on ThePrint.
He fled to Canada years again and is at the moment primarily based in at the moment primarily based in Edmonton, Alberta.
Landa is believed to have shut ties to Harwinder Singh Sandhu alias Rinda, a gangster primarily based in Pakistan, reported Hindustan Instances (HT). The names of each the gangsters featured within the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) listing of 5 pro-Khalistan BKI operatives in September, with the federal company saying money rewards for data resulting in their arrest.
Landa has been on the NIA radar for a while now.
Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) in the present day declared a money reward of Rs 15 lakh towards absconding terror accused Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa. A resident of Harike village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, Landa is at the moment residing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. pic.twitter.com/hBQraympFO
— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2023
Talking to ThePrint on the time, Lakhbir Singh’s aged dad and mom stated their son received concerned in heroin smuggling when he was 16 and after that the whole lot modified. They stated he escaped to Canada in 2016 and has not stayed in contact with them since then.
Nonetheless, they declare he was “a pure soul who was led down the path of crime by bad company and powerful local leaders”. “They made an innocent boy a gangster,” his mom advised ThePrint.
The primary case towards Landa was filed in July 2011 below the Arms Act at Harike Pattan for an alleged homicide try. Dozens of instances have since been registered towards him. Earlier than he fled to Canada, the Punjab Police booked him for an alleged kidnapping in Moga in Might 2016, reported HT.
Landa’s identify nonetheless evokes worry in his hometown of Harike, positioned within the border district of Tarn Taran metropolis. Residents of the city advised ThePrint that they nonetheless get extortion calls within the gangster’s identify. In accordance with the digital outlet’s police sources, Landa’s gang stays lively in Harike, with the gangster working it from Canada.
“A lot of people receive threatening phone calls, and allege that the call came from Lakhbir Singh. However, local criminal elements sometimes tend to extort money in the name of dreaded gangsters,” a senior officer was quoted as saying by ThePrint.
As per The Quint, Landa is believed to have been inactive between 2016 and 2020 as he was attempting to run a authorized enterprise in Canada for a while.
He was again within the limelight after the 2021 Patti double homicide case in Punjab. Aman Fauji and Prabhjit Singh, thought-about near Gurmukh Singh Ghulla – an aide of ex-Patti MLA Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, have been killed in Might of that yr. One of many arrested folks within the case reportedly confessed the murders have been carried out on the order of Landa, based on The Quint.
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MHA’s expenses towards Lakhbir Singh Landa
A notification issued by the MHA on Friday (29 December) stated Landa was concerned within the terror assault via Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) on the Punjab Police intelligence headquarters in Mohali on 9 Might final yr.
Landa has been “involved in supply of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), arms, sophisticated weapons, explosives from across the border to various modules for carrying out terrorist activities in Punjab”, the notification learn.
It talked about a Look Out Round was issued towards the gangster in June 2021. “… the Central government believes that Landa is involved in terrorism and he is to be added as a terrorist,” the MHA said.
He’s accused of planting an IED beneath the automobile of a police sub-inspector in Amritsar, reported Indian Specific.
The gangster has been concerned in “various criminal cases related to raising of terror modules, extortion, killings, planting IEDs, smuggling of weapons and narcotics and using funds or proceeds thereof for terrorist acts in Punjab and other parts of the country,” as per the notification.
Landa is believed to have a task in focused killings and different anti-national actions in a number of elements of India.
The gangster and his associates have been “conspiring to disrupt the peace, law and order in Punjab by carrying out targeted killings, extortions and other anti-national activities in different parts of India,” the notification added.
With inputs from companies