Roving Periscope: As they ‘protect’ Pannun, America, and Canada ignore Hillary’s warning
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: America—and its lackey Canada—learned the geopolitical art of protecting ‘non-state’ assets—terrorists unleashable against potential or real enemies—from its all-season protégé Pakistan, ignoring what the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advised Islamabad in October 2011: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors.”
That is why, under the guise of an alleged ‘freedom of expression’ and so-called ‘democracy,’ Washington and Ottawa are turning a deaf ear to the open threats of designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US-Canadian citizen.
In July 2020, India’s Home Ministry declared Pannun a terrorist on grounds of sedition and secessionism and urged Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice for him.
He also threatened to kill Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the media reported on Tuesday.
But this India-designated terrorist is a protected citizen of the US and Canada, the way Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan!
He is not alone. The two North American countries are rearing similar Russian, Chinese, and other ‘separatists’ waiting to be unleashed on the countries of their origin.
Pannun, an unofficial asset of the US’ India policy, on Tuesday, issued a fresh threat against New Delhi, where, until a couple of months ago, President Joe Biden was said to have agreed to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade on January 26, 2024.
Several pictures going viral on social media show pro-Khalistani graffiti in the national capital. The graffiti contained threats ahead of the Republic Day parade on January 26. It claims that the banned outfit SFJ aims to “avenge” the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was killed outside a Gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, on June 18, 2023, by unknown men.
Now join the dots: Pannun, a US-Canadian Sikh heading a terrorist organization banned by India, is seeking “justice” for the killing of another separatist, based in Canada—and you get the picture clearer. By the way, the two ‘democratic’ countries—the US and Canada—took no action against Nijjar or Pannun and, instead, sermonized India!
India had declared SFJ as an ‘Unlawful Association’ on July 10, 2019.
Pannun, whom New Delhi declared a ‘designated individual terrorist’ on July 1, 2020, has been inciting Punjab-based gangsters and youth over social media to fight for the cause of the independent state of “Khalistan”, challenging the sovereignty, integrity, and security of the country, investigations by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have shown.
Interestingly, human traffickers had tutored dozens of innocent youths from Punjab, arrested in France recently and sent back to India, that, in case they got arrested in America or Canada, they should call themselves Khalistanis to get political asylum and citizenship in the two North American countries!
This is not the first time that Pannun threatened India.
In December 2023, he threatened to attack Parliament on or before December 13.
A month before that, Pannun asked Sikhs not to fly Air India aircraft after November 19, as their lives could be under threat. He claimed that Air India would not be allowed to operate on November 19, the birth anniversary of former Indian PM Indira Gandhi, whom the separatists mocked and took out rallies in the two countries that sheltered them.
In September 2023, he asked Hindu Canadians to leave Canada amid tensions that erupted after the diplomatic row between India and Canada over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. His supporters attacked and damaged several Hindu shrines and even the consulates and diplomats.
The Ministry of External Affairs informed last year that India raised the threats issued by Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, with the United States and Canadian authorities.
In response, they lectured India and certified Pannun as their citizen!
Pannun has been on NIA’s radar since 2019 when the anti-terror agency registered its first case against the terrorist, who has been promoting and commissioning terror acts and activities, and spreading fear and terror in Punjab and elsewhere in the country by intimidation tactics and threats, the media reported on Tuesday.
Non-bailable arrest warrants were issued against Pannun by the NIA Special Court on February 3, 2021, and he was declared a ‘Proclaimed Offender (PO)’ on November 29, 2022.
Last year, the NIA confiscated the house and land of Pannun in Amritsar, Punjab, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. These properties were earlier attached following orders passed by the government in two different cases.
NIA investigations have revealed that Pannun’s organization, SFJ, was misusing cyberspace to radicalize gullible youth and to instigate them to undertake terrorist crimes and activities. It also emerged during the NIA investigations that he was the main handler and controller of the SFJ.
