New Delhi: A poster featuring an image of Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and offering Rs 10 lakh as legal aid for the “rebels of Parliament” began to circulate on social media after the security breach in Parliament Wednesday. The poster’s authenticity could not be confirmed.
Pannun had earlier released a video threatening to “shake the very foundations of Parliament” on or before 13 December, the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack. The poster appears to reference this, saying, “So indeed foundations of Indian Parliament shook.” It also refers to the banned separatist group founded by Pannun, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), saying, “Get ‘armed for self-defense’ — SFJ.”
The poster goes on to claim that there will be a voter registration drive for a “Khalistan referendum” in India from 26 January, 2024.
Pannun, a US-based lawyer who faces criminal cases in India, including sedition charges, has been at the centre of a storm since allegations surfaced last month that US authorities had foiled a plot to kill him and issued a warning to the Indian government. US prosecutors have indicted an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, who allegedly worked with an Indian government employee to plot Pannun’s murder. India has since set up an inquiry committee to look into the US inputs on the alleged plot.
On Wednesday, two men entered Parliament and jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the Lok Sabha chamber and opened canisters that emitted a yellow-coloured gas. Both have been arrested, as have two others who opened a canister and raised slogans outside Parliament. Two more people involved in planning the security breach are on the run, according to intelligence sources.
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