Amid repeated threats by Khalistani radicals against top Indian diplomats, founder of the secessionist Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has confirmed that he was behind the "kill posters" spotted in Canada, the UK and the US, according to a report by The Times of India.
Pannun issued a fresh threat to Indian diplomats in Canada, the US, Australia and the UK in a video message released from the UN Headquarters on Thursday. He also debunked rumours of his "death" by saying that he was alive and well.
The fugitive secessionist further said that he would avenge the killing of his close aide Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani radical who was shot dead by two unidentified persons in Surrey in Canada’s British Columbia.
"Yes, we will hold Sandhu-Verma-Doraiswami-Malhotra-Vohra, the Indian diplomats in the US, Canada, UK, Italy and Australia responsible for the assassination of Nijjar," Pannun said.
"Hardeep Nijjar was my younger brother and we had an association of more than 20 years. We will avenge his death," Pannun told the publication hours after releasing the video.
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Declaring the third phase of the Khalistan referendum in Canada, Pannun said that Toronto would vote on July 16 and Vancouver on September 10, and both would be dedicated to Nijjar.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday said that incidents of posters being displayed by Khalistani elements, inciting violence against Indian diplomats, are "unacceptable" and called for action.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had also said in New Delhi that although India had repeatedly requested Canada to act against the Khalistanis based in the North American country, it had failed, apparently because the nation had been “driven by vote-bank politics”.
Countering New Delhi’s allegation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “freedom of expression”. “We have an extremely diverse country and freedom of expression is something that we have. But, we will also make sure that we are pushing back against violence and extremism in all its forms,” he was quoted in media reports from Ottawa.
Ottawa’s envoy to New Delhi, Cameron MacKay, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently and was served a démarche.
Démarche is a formal communication of one government’s official position, views, or wishes on a given subject to an appropriate official in another government.
New Delhi has also asked Canberra, London and Washington DC to ensure the security of its diplomats posted in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively, as the pictures of some of them too were marked as “the faces of the killers” in the propaganda materials circulated by the Khalistani Sikh organisations online.