A 42-year-old Indian in the US has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for plotting terror attacks in India by providing material support and resources to the Khalistan movement. Balwinder Singh was a member of two terrorist groups and provided material support to “intimidate” the Indian government and harm persons who were not supporting the groups’ cause, said US attorney Daniel Bogden.
The plot, which investigators believe targeted an Indian government official for assassination, was thwarted when one of Singh’s co-conspirators was barred from boarding a flight from San Francisco to South Asia in November 2013, officials said. The target was going to be determined after the suspect landed.
“This case is an example of multi-law enforcement agencies working together to protect the United States and our foreign allies from a terrorist act,” Bogden explained further.
Singh, who also went by the alias Jhaji and Baljit Singh is a citizen of India and a permanent US resident. He had pleaded guilty in November last year. According to court documents, between September and December 2013, Singh conspired with others to support terrorist attacks in India as part of the Khalistan movement to create an independent Sikh state in the Punjab region.
In November 2013, Singh purchased two sets of night vision goggles and a laptop and supplied them to a co-conspirator. The co-conspirator attempted to board a flight from the San Francisco International Airport to Bangkok in December 2013 but law enforcement prevented him. After these events, Singh continued to plan the terror attack in India until Singh’s arrest in December 2013.
