The Union Home Ministry on Friday designated Canada-based gangster Lakhbir Singh Landa as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Landa is associated with Babbar Khalsa International, which is listed as a terrorist organisation under the Act, the government said. The 33-year-old is accused of having planned an attack on the Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in 2021.

“Landa backed by cross border agency was involved in the terror attack through shoulder mounted Rocket Propelled Grenade on the building of Punjab State Intelligence Headquarter at Mohali,” a notification by the home ministry. “...[He] has been involved in supply of Improvised Explosive Devices [IEDs], arms, sophisticated weapons, explosives from across the border to various modules for carrying out terrorist activities in the Punjab,” the Centre said.

The notice also said that Landa has been named as an accused person in cases related to setting up terror modules, extortion, killings, planting improvised explosive devices, smuggling weapons and narcotics and using funds for terrorist acts in Punjab and other parts of the country.

Landa, who currently resides in Canada’s Alberta province, hails from Punjab’s Tarn Taran district.

The development comes even as Canada and the United States have accused India of targeting Sikh separatists abroad.

On September 18, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had told his country’s parliament that intelligence agencies were actively pursuing “credible allegations” tying agents of the Indian government to the death of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed by masked gunmen on June 18 near Vancouver.

Over two months after Trudeau’s claims, the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, also announced that it had filed “murder-for-hire charges” against an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta in connection with his alleged participation in a thwarted plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader. Though the statement did not name the leader, a report in the Financial Times on November 23 identified him as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.