India: Targeted Terror In Punjab – Analysis
By SATP
By Ruchika Kakkar
On November 18, 2025, Inderjit Karwal, Punjab state vice-president of the Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray faction), and his son Jimmy Karwal were attacked in broad daylight by at least six armed assailants on motorcycles on Gaushala Road/Bazaar in Phagwara, Kapurthala District. The incident triggered immediate tension, prompting Shiv Sena and Hindu groups to call for a complete shutdown in Phagwara on November 19. The attack is believed to be linked to a 2018 clash in Phagwara between right-wing/Hindu groups and Dalit groups, during which a Dalit youth, Bobby, was killed. Tanish, Bobby’s brother, is said to have sought revenge, and Jimmy Karwal was allegedly involved in the 2018 incident.
On November 15, 2025, bike-borne assailants shot dead Naveen Arora, son of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader, in Ferozepur District. Later on, November 17, a little-known pro-Khalistan outfit, Sher-e-Punjab Brigade, took responsibility for the killing. The group described the murder as part of a “dharam-yudh” (religious war) for Khalistan’s independence, accusing the Arora family of “assimilating Sikhs into Hindutva” and provoking tensions since the 1980s. Signed by self-styled “commander” Paramjit Singh and “spokesperson” Bahadur Singh Sandhu, the statement also threatened further attacks on the RSS, Shiv Sena, police, and “agents of the Hindu government.” On November 20, a key conspirator, Gursimran Singh, was injured and arrested in a Police encounter near Sodhe Wala village in Ferozepur.
These incidents are not in isolation. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, at least 16 such incidents resulting in 16 deaths, have been reported since 2016, when the recent chain of such targeted killings of Hindutva and other religious elements commenced. These incidents included:
April 13, 2024: Vishwa Hindu Parsihad (VHP) leader Vikas Prabhakar aka Vikas Bagga was shot dead at Nangal in the Rupnagar District of Punjab. The Punjab police later posted on X, “In a major breakthrough, Rupnagar Police, in a joint operation with SSOC #Mohali, has solved the Vikas Prabhakar Murder Case in less than three days with the arrest of 2 operatives of a terror module backed by #Pakistan-based terrorist masterminds.”
November 10, 2022: Unidentified gunmen killed Dera Sacha Sauda follower Pardeep Singh at Kot Kapura in Faridkot District. Pardeep Singh was facing a beadbi (sacrilege) case in the incident of the theft of a Bir of the Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015, and was out on bail. Meanwhile. hours later, in a Facebook post, gangster Goldy Brar allegedly declared, “I, Goldy Brar from Lawrence Bishnoi gang, takes the responsibility of murder of 2015 Bargari Beadbi case.”
November 4, 2022: Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri was killed in Amritsar District in broad daylight. Suri was shot dead in a busy market area of the city, where he had sat on a dharna outside the local Gopal Mandir on Majitha Road. Suri’s grouse was against the alleged desecration of Hindu idols by the temple management. Suri headed Shiv Sena (Taksali) and was often in news for his inflammatory remarks, and had been given Police security, which was with him when the attack took place. Soon after the incident, the attacker, Sandeep Singh alias Sunny, who shot multiple bullets into Suri using his licensed weapon, was arrested. Sandeep was in the crowd that surrounded Suri and fellow protesters, when he shot the leader and ran into a nearby house for cover.
November 18, 2018: At least three people were killed and 20 injured in a grenade blast at a religious congregation at Nirankari Satsang Bhawan at Adliwal village in Amritsar District. The blast took place near Amritsar’s Rajasansi, close to the international airport.
October 30, 2017: The Hindu Sangarsh Sena ‘district chief’, Vipan Sharma, was shot dead by four unidentified assailants in the Bharat Nagar locality, along the Amritsar-Batala Road in Amritsar.
October 17, 2017: RSS leader Ravinder Gosain was shot dead by two unidentified assailants near his house in Mohalla Gagandeep Colony in Ludhiana District.
July 15, 2017: The pastor of a local church, Sultan Masih, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants outside the church in Peerubanda Mohalla in Ludhiana District.
February 25, 2017: Two Dera Sacha Sauda followers, Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh Kumar, were shot dead by two unidentified assailants at their canteen at Naam Charcha Ghar, a meeting centre for the Dera followers, in Jagera village in Khanna in Ludhiana District.
January 15, 2017: Amit Sharma, the ‘Zila Pracharak (District President)’ of the Hindu religious organization, Sri Hindu Takht, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants near Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana District.
August 6, 2016: Senior RSS leader, Brigadier (Retired) Jagdish Gagneja, was shot at by two unidentified assailants when he was shopping with his wife at a market in Jalandhar. He succumbed to his injuries on September 21, 2016.
April 23, 2016: Shiv Sena’s labour wing chief in Punjab, Durga Prasad Gupta, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants near Lalheri Chowk in Khanna in Ludhiana District.
April 4, 2016: Chand Kaur, wife of the late Satguru Jagjit Singh, the former head of the Namdhari sect, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants at the Bhaini Sahib Gurdwara complex in Ludhiana District.
February 3, 2016: Former Shiv Sena youth wing leader Amit Arora was injured as two unidentified assailants shot at him near Jyoti Motor Basti Jodhewal in Ludhiana District.
January 18, 2016: RSS leader Naresh Kumar was injured when two unidentified assailants fired upon him in the early hours at Shaheedi Park in Kidwai Nagar in Ludhiana District.
In their inquiries in most of these cases of ‘targeted attacks’, investigative agencies have uncovered a transnational network of conspirators affiliated to Khalistani terrorist groups backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), working relentlessly to revive the Khalistani terrorist threat in Punjab by provoking communal violence.
Most recently, on November 20, 2025, Police dismantled an ISI-backed multi-state gangster-terrorist module and arrested two key operatives, Deepak and Ram Lal (both non-Sikhs). They revealed that the module was operating across Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, and Rajasthan, had recruited operatives from outside the state, and was tasked by a Pakistan-based handler identified as Jasveer aka Choudhary to carry out grenade attacks at sensitive locations, to incite communal tensions and destabilize Punjab.
Earlier, on November 1-2, 2025, four key operatives, two identified as Lovedeep Singh alias Love and Tek Chand alias Tinku (non-Sikh) of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), were arrested in Gurdaspur District. Three .32 calibre pistols, along with live cartridges and magazines, were also recovered from them. The arrests prevented potential targeted killings.
The recent escalation in targeted violence in Punjab appears to be driven by increasingly sophisticated external support structures, the reactivation of dormant sleeper cells, and evolving geopolitical dynamics that accelerate radicalisation and financial flows. What has emerged is a layered threat environment in which transnational handlers exploit narcotics routes, porous borders, and local socio-economic vulnerabilities to revive long-dormant extremist ecosystems. A widening gangster-terror nexus – anchored by ISI and facilitators operating from Canada, USA, Europe, and other regions – has further intensified this challenge.
Authorities assess that this surge in attacks is part of a deliberate strategy to destabilise Punjab by inflaming communal tensions, eliminating rival criminal networks, and breathing new life into separatist agendas. These hybrid modules rely heavily on local criminals recruited for targeted killings, who are funded through drug trafficking, extortion, and hawala or digital channels. Diaspora-based radical elements and overseas gangsters continue to identify and exploit disillusioned youth, reinforcing ideological narratives that align with Khalistani extremist goals. In November 2025 alone, security forces dismantled at least seven such modules, seizing more than 18 weapons and arresting multiple operatives assigned assassination missions.
This convergence of criminality, ideological extremism, and foreign intelligence support has transformed Punjab’s security landscape into a hybrid destabilisation model that extends beyond traditional separatism. By selectively targeting Hindu, right-wing or minority activists, deradicalised former militants, Sikh preachers, and rival factions, the network seeks to fracture communal harmony, overstretch security agencies, and maintain the Khalistan narrative within a small but vocal diaspora fringe. At the centre of this ecosystem are gangsters and local criminal operatives functioning as overground workers (OGWs) and shooters, carrying out contract-style attacks for handlers based abroad. In exchange, they receive smuggled weapons, financial transfers, and logistical support – blurring the line between profit-driven crime and state- and diaspora-sponsored terrorism.
In combination, these developments underscore the emergence of a complex and adaptive threat in Punjab – one that thrives on the fusion of organised crime, ideological radicalisation, and foreign intelligence manipulation. The pattern of targeted attacks is not episodic but symptomatic of a sustained effort to reopen old fault lines and engineer instability through calibrated violence.
Preventing further deterioration will require persistent intelligence-led policing, deeper scrutiny of cross-border funding and arms pipelines, and stronger international cooperation to dismantle the overseas support architecture. Without sustained vigilance and proactive disruption, these hybrid networks risk entrenching themselves further, posing a long-term challenge to Punjab’s communal stability and internal security.
