(Image source from: News18.com)
The Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa has been named among the separatist movements by the United States that pose a risk to American interest abroad by conducting assassinations and bombings against major political, economic, and social targets.
Through violent means, Babbar Khalsa International seeks to set up its own independent state in India and is accountable for significant terrorist attacks in India and elsewhere that have claimed the lives of innocent civilians, according to the Trump administration's new National Strategy for Counterterrorism unveiled by the White House on Thursday.
The direct reference to Babbar Khalsa, an international terrorist organization and prohibited by several countries including Canada, the U.S. and India assume significance because of its minuscule support base in North America.
The Indian government, in recent months, is believed to have raised with the Trump administration in the issue of separatist Sikhs using the U.S. as a platform to gain global traction.
The White House, in its strategy paper, said there is a broad range of revolutionary, nationalist, and separatist movements overseas whose use of violence and intent to destabilize societies often puts American lives at risk.
"Such groups may avoid or deprioritize targeting United States interests, for now, to avoid detracting from their core goals but frequently conduct assassinations and bombings against major economic, political, and social targets, heightening the risk to the United States personnel and interests overseas," the strategy said.
Among others, the White House said the Nordic Resistance Movement is a prominent transnational, self-described nationalist-socialist organization with anti-Western views that has conducted violent attacks against Muslims, left-wing groups, and others.
The group has demonstrated against the U.S. Government actions it perceives are supportive of Israel and has the potential to extend its targeting to the U.S. interests, it said.
"Similarly, the neo-Nazi National Action Group, a terrorist organization that was banned by the United Kingdom in 2016 for its promotion of violence against politicians and minorities, operates mainly in the United Kingdom but has engaged with like-minded groups in the United States, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, and Poland - expanding the potential influence of its violent ideology," the strategy said.
-Sowmya Sangam
