WASHINGTON: The head of Sikhs for Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, addressed a letter to the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling for an immediate action against violence by the Indian government against the Sikhs.
In the letter, he asked the US top diplomat to act against Indian government’s involvement in extra judicial killing of Khalistan supporters and Sikh community. The appeal of Gurpatwant Singh Pannu comes as Blinken is set to meet with the Indian Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Khalistan movement is a movement to create a separate state for Sikhs in Punjab, India. Indian government has over the decades responded in increasingly violent means against the Sikhs’ struggle for independence, including attacking their holiest sites, the Golden Temple in 1984 in a brutal military operation called the Operation Blue Star.
In his letter, Pannu strongly criticized the United States’ “quiet diplomacy” with India. He argued that it encouraged the extremist Modi’s administration to continue with its human rights abuses. He also pointed to a recent indictment from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) against an Indian citizen involved in a plot to assassinate him.
Pannu said that the Sikhs for Justice was committed to promoting the self-determination for Sikhs in India. He has urged Blinken to address the Modi government’s violent actions against activists and supporters of Khalistan within the United States. The Sikh also asserted that the global violations were not confined to just US territory.
The letter also called attention to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nagar in Canada, noting that the pro-Khalistan activists have faced threats in the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia.
Pannu called for a thorough investigation into the conspiracy against him and demanded accountability for those involved. He also highlighted that the Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval have consistently and outright made their intentions clear to suppress pro-Khalistan movement anywhere in the world.
The Sikh activist urged the United States to insist that New Delhi cease its intimidation tactics against US citizens.
The letter ended with Pannu saying that any attempts on his life would not deter the Khalistan movement. He declared that if he were to be harmed, he would hold India’s Prime Minster Narendra Modi, the Indian envoy and the chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) accountable.
