Who is Pieter Friedrich, the 'resource person' in Greta Thunberg's toolkit on farmers' protest?

According to a report by media watchdog the Disinfolab, Friedrich was a crucial resource person in the farmers’ protests, whose name was dropped accidentally by Thunberg in the toolkit. He had claimed to be part of protesters who vandalized Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the USA.

File photo

New Delhi: After Disha Ravi, Nikita, and Shantanu, a new name has emerged in Greta Thunberg's toolkit case related to the farmers' protest - Pieter Friedrich. Friedrich was central to an investigation regarding the info-war against India. 

According to a report by media watchdog the Disinfolab, Friedrich was a crucial resource person in the farmers’ protests, whose name was dropped accidentally by Thunberg in the toolkit. 

Friedrich is said to have been in contact with Bhajan Singh Bhinder, a known Khalistani. He is also associated with the K2 (Kashmir-Khalistan) conspiracy. 

According to the police investigating the matter, Friedrich is currently living in Malaysia, doing research on fascism. He had claimed to be part of protesters who vandalized Mahatma Gandhi's statue in the USA. 

The police are investigating if Friedrich was among the 60-7 –people who attended the zoom meeting of which Nikita was also a participant. 

According to the Disinfolab report, Friedrich has been involved in terror-related activities with the help of Pakistan's secret agency ISI. 

"Pieter was part of a story we were already working on since about a month in the context of info-war against India," "the report said. 

The story goes far back into the past. During the turmoil of the 1980s, a hitherto unknown Khalistani Bhajan Singh Bhinder appears on the scene. He claimed his origins from Malaysia and was operating from the US. He was essentially funding the terror network for carrying out large-scale violence in various cities in India through another terrorist Lal Singh with the help of Pakistan's ISI. Indian escaped the attack by a whisker when Lal Singh got arrested from Dadar railway station. Bhinder was eventually also put on India's Black-list till 2011, the report said. 

The attacks were part of a larger conspiracy called K-2 (Kashmir-Khalistan) which was hatched in Lahore under the patronage of Amir ul Azeem, the then Secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami, and being supported by several Pakistani establishment players including Choudhary Altaf Hussain, eventually Governor of Punjab (Pakistan) and uncle of present S&T Minister of Pakistan Fawad Chaudhary. 

At the same time, while in the US, Bhinder and his gang were also involved in a major transnational drug trafficking network, and a DVD piracy network. In order to fund their drug network, they managed to take control of one of the most prominent Gurudwaras in the US (Fremont Gurudwara), after a bloody fight within it. Fremont receives millions of dollars in contribution from devotees every year. 

The report said that all this while Bhinder has also been trying to procure weapons to be sent to India via Pakistan. His quest for arms almost got him in the police net in the US. An investigation by DEA Special Agent Tim Lum reveals that Bhinder was looking for massive firepower to be sent to India. The deal however failed to materialize, as Bhinder got suspicious about the Agent. It was a close call for Bhinder. 

It added that with the change of the millennium, Bhinder also changed his methods. In early 2000, after the efforts to send weapons to India failed, and with new media and online platforms mushrooming, Bhinder (or the masterminds behind him) decided to shift focus towards launching an info-war against India. To this end, he plans to set up flimsy organization and scouts for a suitable 'white face', who could be used as the face for the info-war operations. 

"By 2006-7 Bhinder finds a young Christian Missionary Pieter Frederich, who seemed to have a decent oratory and writing skills but was still wanting in terms of economic means. Pieter was even willing to work as a security guard, and hence the offer to become an 'expert-activist' would have been quite lucrative to refuse. Pieter came on board and finds a new role as an anti-Gandhi crusader," the report said.

(With inputs from IANS)