The intelligence agencies have reportedly alerted the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about banned secessionist group Sikhs For Justice’s (SFJ) plan to ‘shut down’ Indian embassies in London, New York and Toronto on December 10.
Emboldened by the stance of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK MPs and representative of UN Secretary General supporting the farmers’ protests in India, the pro-Khalistan quartet of Paramjit Singh Pamma, Gurmit Singh Bagga, Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has announced to shut down the Indian consulates.
The agencies got inputs about the SFJ’s declaration through different internet sites where the group posted a mail regarding “shut down of Indian consulates in London, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Vancouver, Toronto, Washington DC, San Francisco and New York on December 10”.
Emphasising that Khalistan is the only solution to Punjab farmers’ plight, Pannun, the General Counsel of SFJ, said, “We have given the call for shutting down Indian consulates on UN Human Rights Day to expose India’s 70-year policy of ‘Sikh genocide to farmers’ econocide’ to the world community.”
Acknowledging Canada Prime Minister Trudeau’s support for the farmers protesting against the farm laws, SFJ’s wanted terrorist Nijjar, who spearheads the Punjab Referendum campaign in Canada, stated that “we will use our rights granted by the Canadian Charter to picket Indian consulates in Vancouver and Toronto”.
UK-based Pamma, Germany-based Bagga, Canada-based Nijjar and US-based Pannun are all wanted by India for actively running the campaign of holding secessionist “Punjab Independence Referendum”.
The inputs came at a time when thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are rallying at Delhi’s borders since November 26.
The SFJ is trying to fish in troubled waters by announcing such moves. In a recent similar announcement, the SFJ had announced $1 million aid for farmers who suffered injuries or damage to their vehicles while facing police action in Haryana.
The information has sent security agencies into a tizzy, and the officials concerned in the MEA have been alerted.
The SFJ, officials informed, has opened a 24-hour call centre and it is being run since November 30 in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany to accept online applications from farmers of Punjab and Haryana to reimburse their losses and also to register votes for its “Khalistan Referendum”.
Ahead of SFJ’s Khalistan Referendum voting from London on August 15, 2021 for the independence of Punjab, the SFJ has been continuously making such announcements through its cadres based in different foreign countries through the internet.
SFJ’s US-based General Counsel and the group’s key leader Pannun is playing a major role in circulating these messages, which on many occasions turned futile and were foiled by the law enforcement agencies.
The group has also threatened to take up the matter at the international level if the Indian government did not repeal its three contentious farm laws enacted in September.
The security establishments, including anti-terror agencies, have intensified their efforts against the group banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs via a notification dated July 10 last year under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following its “anti-India activities” to disrupt law and order in the country.
Last month, the SFJ had called upon the farmers of Punjab and Haryana to raise the Khalistan flag at the India Gate on the 12th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, following which the national capital was put on high alert.
The SFJ had also announced an anti-India campaign, ‘Referendum-2020’, in November this year to seek secession of Punjab from India.
The move followed inputs that the Sikh community across India has rejected the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsored propaganda of ‘Referendum-2020’. Pakistani intelligence agency ISI has been backing the malicious campaign launched by the SFJ as a large number of Pakistani Twitter handles have started tweeting in favour of the so-called ‘Referendum’.
Dubbing Sikhs in Kashmir as “freedom fighters and Sikh soldiers”, the US-based Khalistani radical outfit has urged them to support its most infamous agenda, ‘Referendum-2020’.
The group is already on the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has been taking action against its key leaders such as Pannun and many others. In the beginning of September, based on NIA’s inputs, the MHA had issued an order to attach the properties of Pannun and SFJ’s Canada coordinator Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at [email protected])
