The Union government informed an Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act tribunal that the Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) run by designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was “inciting Sikh personnel in Army and police forces to desert” their units.
India had approached Interpol to trace an international number that was used to send a pre-recorded voice message, with the voice of Pannun, threatening to bomb the Indian Parliament and Red Fort area to promote the Khalistan referendum. The calls were received on the fixed-line phone of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and on the mobile phones of two Communist Party of India (Marxist) MPs — A.A. Rahim and V. Sivadasan in July 2024. Pannun resides in the U.S.
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The government informed the tribunal that the SFJ was “inciting the Christian community in Manipur to raise their voices for a separate country” and also accused the pro-Khalistan group of inciting the people of Tamil Nadu to raise flags of “Dravidstan” and “stoking Muslim sentiments by raising the bogey of minority persecution”.
The UAPA tribunal upheld the ban against the SFJ for another five years in an order dated January 27. The group was first banned in 2019 for five years, which was extended for another five years in July 2024.
At least 122 cases have been registered against the SFJ by various State police forces and the National Investigation Agency since 2018 and 105 people have been arrested.
“SFJ has been trying to provoke on social media, the Sikh Soldiers of Indian Army for mutiny by asking them to leave the Indian Army and join SFJ. Pannun had urged Sikh Soldiers to join the SFJ movement and offered ₹5,000 more than the salary given by Indian Government. He also tried to provoke the Sikh soldiers posted in Ladakh to not to fight for India against Chinese aggression. Pannun also tried to provoke the Punjab Police officials urging them not to stop farmers going to Jalandhar, Pathankot and Abohar and to stop the Prime Minister for his upcoming rallies,” the government’s submission to the tribunal read.
The government’s submission also reveals that SFJ activists and sympathisers were involved in at least two incidents of railway sabotage in 2023 in Punjab. On March 14, 2023, the clips of a track at Lehra Mahout village in Bhatinda were removed while four days later, around 50 clamps were removed from the railway track near Pathrala Railway Station on the directions of Pannun, “thereby endangering the life of passengers travelling by the train, halting the economic activity as well as causing terror in the minds of the people”.
Pannun and his associates also asked “Pro-Khalistani Elements [PKEs] to sabotage railway tracks in Punjab to cause derailment or accident of passenger and goods trains, particularly those ferrying migrant labourers to take revenge of recent killings of PKEs based abroad”.
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The railway track between Ludhiana and Sirhind was learnt to be preferred target for the attack, government said.
The Punjab Police registered a case against the SFJ for issuing death threats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in 2023.
