Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri who was shot dead allegedly by a pro-Khalistan element in Amritsar today is not the first Hindu leader who has been killed in Punjab during recent years.
Sudhir Suri was at a protest site when bullets were sprayed at him, killing him on the spot despite presence of several policemen that were allotted to him due to high level threat to his life by Khalistani terrorists.
Surprisingly, Suri is not the first Hindu leader who has been killed in Punjab during recent some year. There has been a killing spree of RSS leaders in Punjab during 2016-17 in which over eight senior leaders were killed. What is intriguing is the fact that the state government of Punjab has so far not accepted that the killing of Hindu leaders is a handiwork of Khalistani terrorists but claim it to be done by gangsters.
The high profile killings of Hindu leaders by Khalistani terrorists include that of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana, RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (Retd) was shot in Jalandhar, chief of the Shiv Sena’s labour wing Durga Prasad Gupta in Ludhiana, RSS volunteer Naresh Kumar was attacked in Ludhiana among others. Many other religious leader including A pastor, Sultan Masih, of Ludhiana, two Dera Sacha Sauda followers Satpal (65) and his son Ramesh Kumar (35) in Ludhiana and Mata Chand Kaur, wife of late chief of the Namdhari sect Satguru Jagjit Singh were also killed in Punjab.
The killing of Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri might also be linked to the smuggling of pistols into Punjab from neighboring Pakistan during recent past. There have been many attempts to smuggle pistols in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab from Pakistan. These pistols are apparently being used in targeted killings including that of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir. The security agencies need to link the terror groups in Punjab and J&K along with their handlers in Pakistan to know the reality of targeted killings. The assassination of Sudhit Suri is a wake up call for the intelligence agencies to stop Khalistani terrorists in pursuing their agenda by tackling them with an iron hand.