New Delhi: India-designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has “issued a threat” against Air India flights, “warning Sikhs against flying the airline” on 19 November.
The day marks the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was assassinated for Operation Bluestar in Golden Temple in 1984.
Pannun, founder of the banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) outfit and who has dual citizenship of both Canada and the US, has issued a video put out first by X [formerly Twitter] accounts banned in India, saying Sikhs would be putting their lives at risk if they flew the airline.
The video by Pannun assumes significance because it is a reminder of one of the deadliest acts of aviation terrorism before the 9/11 attack on the US World Trade Centre — the bombing of Air India Flight 182 on 23 June, 1985, which was enroute from Canada to India. All 329 passengers on board were killed and the attacks were orchestrated by Sikh extremists, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
In the latest video, Pannun also called for a global blockade on the airline on 19 November. The date coincides with that of the finals of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, an event Pannun appears to refer to as the “World Terror Cup” in the video.
This is not the first time Pannun has made threats targeting India and Indians since tensions between Canada and India began following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations on 18 September of a “potential link” between agents of the government of India and the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada earlier in the year.
New Delhi has rejected Ottawa’s allegations, calling them “absurd and motivated”. Both Canada and India have expelled each other’s diplomats.
In September, following Trudeau’s allegations, videos of Pannun threatening Hindu Indo-Canadians, and asking them to return to India had surfaced, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
Also read: ‘Khalistan’ flags, Modi effigies, burnt tricolour: Canadian Sikhs protest outside Indian missions
Who is Pannun?
Pannun was a law graduate from Amritsar who reportedly fled India to the US in 2007. He has since founded the SFJ, and established himself as an attorney of law abroad. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered its first case against Pannun in 2019.
The NIA issued warrants for his arrest on 3 February, 2021, and he was declared a proclaimed offender in November 2022, as reported by ThePrint.
Through his videos on social media, Pannun has called for a separate state of Khalistan and run the campaign of the SFJ against Indian politicians allegedly linked to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by moving cases in the courts of the US.
He is said to have previously claimed credit for the hoisting of the Khalistani flag on the gates of the Himachal Pradesh assembly building in Dharamshala in May last year, threatened to hoist the Khalistani flag at the Red Fort, purportedly offered US$ 5,00,000 to anyone who unfurls the Khalistani flag at the Red Fort and posted videos claiming to “liberate” Punjab from India by the end of 2023.
Also read: Dramatic new video shows Nijjar shot by ‘Sikh’ gunmen. Witnesses say cops tussled over jurisdiction