Trump's terror strategy declares Babbar Khalsa International 'risk to US personnel and interests overseas'

The new country terrorism strategy unveiled by the Trump administration on Thursday has listed Babbar Khalsa International terrorist group as a "risk to the US personnel and interests overseas".

The National Strategy for Counterterrorism said that Babbar Khalsa International "is responsible for significant terrorist attacks in India and elsewhere that have claimed the lives of innocent civilians".

The group has been associated with the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1981 that killed 329 people on the Emperor Kanishka, a Boeing 747 airliner.

Based in Vancouver, the Babbar Khalsa International group was founded by a Canadian citizen.

Pictures of late Talwinder Singh Parmar, the founder of Babbar Khalsa International are displayed at public events in Canada.

Parmar was killed in 1992 during a confrontation with police when he returned to India from Canada.

Canada had earlier refused to extradite Parmar, who was wanted in India in connection with the killing of two Punjab police officers.

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, the third largest in Canada's House of Commons, has admitted Parmar's role in the terrorist attack.

A day before the National Strategy for Counter-terrorism also listed Pakistan-based terrorist outfits the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) among radical Islamist groups.

In addition to the ISIS and al-Qaeda, dozens of other radical Islamist terrorist groups are working to advance more locally focused insurgent or terrorist campaigns, while still posing a threat to United States persons and interests overseas, said the strategy.

About groups like the Babbar Khalsa International, it said they "may avoid or deprioritise targeting US 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 United States personnel and interests overseas".

(With inputs from agencies)