US report debunks Indian claims on Khalistan ‘terrorism’

LONDON: The US administration has refused to accept the Indian narrative of labelling Khalistan Movement as terrorism in its latest important report on terrorism and international security.

While the latest US Country Reports on Terrorism 2020 mentioned a host of terrorist/militant outfits active in several Indian states posing various levels of terrorist threats, conspicuous by absence is any mention of Khalistan group.

Given that activism and influence in Indian Punjab of pro-Khalistan groups like the US-based “Sikhs For Justice” has repeatedly been mentioned in Indian media reports in the context of alleged terrorist activities, the US report declares that the pro-Khalistan groups have not been involved in violence or militancy implying that they have been working only democratically.

The report mentioned that India has arrested several members of al-Qaeda and Ghazwatul Hind in Jammu and Kashmir. It said that several Maoist and Islamist groups operate in India but Indian government has disrupted their work. The report didn’t mention anything further about the Khalistan groups other than to stress that they are not involved in militancy.

However, the report does not mention any of the more than two dozen terrorism-related charges and cases filed by India against SFJ’s General Counsel Pannun and other India and foreign based Khalistan Referendum activists. As recent as September 2021, Indian police raided and arrested three Sikh youths from Punjab for printing pamphlets and posters of Khalistan Referendum Voting.

Earlier in December 2020, after the SFJ organized pro-farmer demonstrations outside Indian consulates in the US, Canada, UK and other countries, India’s premier prosecution body --- the National Investigation Agency (NIA) ---booked Pannun and other foreign-based activists on, among others, the charges of “undertake terrorist acts”. Since July 1, 2020, the Indian government through a notification by the Minister of Home Affairs [F.No.17011/16/2020-CT-H] has officially declared and designated SFJ primo Pannun as “terrorist”.