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24-11-2023
NANTUCKET/ NEW DELHI/ LONDON: Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) and a pro-Khalistan Sikh leader, has responded to his assassination plot by India which was exposed in a report by the Financial Times (FT).
After reports of the United States warning India over Pannun’s planned assassination made headlines worldwide, the Sikh leader responded by saying that the plot to kill him on American soil through Indian death squads “directly challenged” Washington’s sovereignty and national security.
Reacting to FT exposing that the US authorities, at the last minute, foiled an Indian state plot to kill the Khalistani leader on American soil, Pannu said he was not scared and will not be deterred by India’s plots against him.
Meanwhile, the US government, in a statement, responded by saying that it has taken up the issue of India’s attempts to kill Pannun “at the senior-most levels” with the Narendra Modi government.
Pannun, who is a New York-based Attorney at Law, said: “India’s transnational terrorism has become a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the United States, so I will let the US government respond to the issue of threats to my life on American soil from the Indian operatives.
“My concern is that the Sikh Community is facing existential threat at the hands of successive Indian regimes from 1984 Operation Blue Star, November 1984 Genocide, decade-long (1984-97) extra-judicial killings of Sikhs to suppress the movement for right to self-determination and now the forced suicide of farmers of Punjab.
“At this time my focus is not threats to my life but to organize American Phase of Khalistan Referendum which is scheduled to start from San Francisco, CA on January 28, 2024, under the supervision of Punjab Referendum Commission, a panel of independent experts on direct democracy.
“Believing that independence from Indian occupation and establishment of Khalistan is the only solution, Sikh sovereigntists have launched the global Khalistan Referendum initiative to peacefully advance the cause of liberating the Indian-held Punjab.
“Being General Counsel of SFJ my responsibility is to organize the secessionist Khalistan Referendum for liberation of Indian-held Punjab and to follow UN Charter and domestic laws of the countries where voting is being organized to ensure compliance with the democratic norms.
“Just like Canadian Citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination by the Indian agents on Canadian soil was a challenge to Canada’s sovereignty, the threat to an American citizen on American soil is a challenge to America’s sovereignty, and I trust that the Biden Administration is more than capable to handle any such challenge.”
In a statement after the kill plot was exposed, the White House said it was “treating this issue with utmost seriousness”. (Int’l News Desk)
