Last Updated: December 05, 2023, 15:55 IST
Pannun and his henchmen came with cars and trucks to Vancouver airport in Canada. Image/News18
Khalistani separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his men coming to sensitive sites like airports with anti-India banners and trucks depicting slogans against India suggest Canadians have no respect for security, Indian government sources said
In the name of picketing Air India, Khalistani separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and his henchmen came with cars and trucks to Vancouver airport in Canada, Indian government sources told CNN-News18.
Pannun and his men coming to sensitive sites like airports with anti-India banners and trucks depicting slogans against India suggest Canadians have no respect for security, they said.
“Every dollar that goes to Air India is being used to perpetuate existential threat to the Sikh population in India,” Pannun’s group says. “SFJ’s ‘Boycott’ Air India campaign is dedicated to the victims of November 1984 Sikh Genocide and to Shaheed Nijjar, the victim of India’s transnational terrorism on Canadian soil.”
Pannun, the founder of the proscribed Sikhs for Justice outfit, has been designated an “individual terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The National Investigation Agency (NIA) booked him last month for threatening passengers flying via Air India and the airlines itself for a global blockade and closure of operations from November 19.
They are not only putting airport security at risk but also intimidating passengers, said the Indian government officials.
Canada is allowing everything in the name of freedom of expression, the sources said.
“This is a serious concern and we object because this is intimidation as well as provoking someone to carry out a Kanishka-type act (1985 bombing of an Air India flight) again,” said an official.
