Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 10
The government today banned Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a US-based group that supports the cause of Khalistan, for its other anti-national activities. A senior official in the Ministry of Home Affairs said the decision to ban the outfit under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967, was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi.
Noting that SFJ’s primary objective was to establish an “independent and sovereign country” in Punjab, the official said, a strong warning had been sent to “fringe groups operating from foreign soils that India will not tolerate secessionist activities, whether carried out in India or abroad” and would take strong action against such entities.
He also said the ban decision was taken after wide consultations with “all major representative bodies of the Sikh community” and was “largely driven” by the report the Centre had received from the Punjab Government”. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), Punjab Police and Uttarakhand Police have registered 12 cases against SFJ actvists in India and made 39 arrests. “Their presence is minor in India. However, there is potential of mischief and, hence, the decision,” the official said.
“Once the organisation is banned, the NIA can take up the issue with its counterparts across the world for further action,” he said, adding: “SFJ from time to time has been making numerous attempts to instigate Sikh soldiers and Sikh security personnel against the Union of India.”
UK-based SFJ activist Paramjit Singh Pamma was seen during the Cricket World Cup match at Edgbaston advocating the cause of Khalistan before he was evicted. Pamma, say agencies, is member of a Khalistan terror group. “The banned outfit has openly been espousing the cause of Khalistan and has started an online secessionist campaign, the so-called ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ on the social media,” the MHA official said.
Move comes weeks after DGP threatened
Chandigarh: Weeks after SFJ threatened Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta, India on Wednesday banned the outfit. Besides Punjab, cases of sedition and terror activities have been filed against it in UP and MP. Earlier, the UK had suspended/blocked SFJ’s Twitter handle and other social media accounts on India’s insistence. Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh had at a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah apprised him of the SFJ designs which had issued video threats to Punjab Police officials, asking them to “stop harassing” SFJ activists or else their relatives living abroad would be targeted. The Punjab CM said the outfit deserved to be banned as a terror organisation. AAP too supported the ban. SFJ had shared a poster on the social media last week, urging pro-Khalistan Sikhs to boo Indian Team during the World Cup semifinal. — Jupinder Singh
Step in right direction
First step towards protecting the nation from anti-India and secessionist designs of ISI-backed organisation. — Capt Amarinder Singh, CM
Centre bans pro-Khalistan group SFJ, Capt hails move
Group started out as a rights advocacy group in 2007 to run a campaign to create awareness about ‘denial of rights’ to Sikhs in India and build a ’movement’ in the community
THE SFJ HAS BEEN PUSHING FOR ‘SIKH REFERENDUM 2020’ AS PART OF ITS SECESSIONIST AGENDA,
CHANDIGARH: The Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a US-based pro-Khalistan group, was on Wednesday banned by the Centre for its alleged anti-national and subversive activities in Punjab and elsewhere.
FILE PHOTO■ Members of the Sikh community gather at Trafalgar Square in London in support of ‘Referendum 2020’ in August last year.The decision to ban the SFJ, which has been pushing for ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ as part of its secessionist agenda, as an “unlawful association” was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet. The outfit was declared outlawed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention Act), 1967 as “it is in close touch with the militant outfits and activists and is supporting violent form of extremism and militancy in Punjab and elsewhere to carve out Khalistan out of territory of India,” according to the notification issued by the Union home ministry.
The ban has been slapped in consultation state with governments, including Punjab, after intelligence agencies raised a red flag about its subversive activities and support to militancy. Welcoming the Union government’s decision, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh said the organisation deserved to be treated as a “terrorist organisation”. He termed the move as the first step towards protecting the nation from secessionist designs of the ISI-back organisation.
“SFJ’s activities went beyond being unlawful and posed a major threat to the very existence of our nation. The central government will have to take more proactive measures to aggressively crack down on it and its affiliates or operatives in the interest of national security,” Amarinder said in a statement. The SFJ, which has been campaigning that Sikhs’ rights are not protected in India, was started in 2007 as a human rights advocacy with its legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as the most vocal member. However, the group emerged as the face of the separatist campaign in just a few years. Its ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ campaign, which was launched in 2014, is being allegedly funded and promoted by the ISI of Pakistan through a clandestine operation codenamed ‘Express’, according to security agencies.
Though it began by running an online campaign and putting up posters in Pakistan and several European countries, security agencies received information that SFJ activists in USA, Canada, UK and Malaysia were involved in recruiting young radicals through various social media platforms and funding/ motivating them to carry out various types of violent acts.
In the last three years, Punjab police have registered half-adozen criminal cases against SFJ leaders and operatives abroad and their supporters in Punjab for carrying out targeting right-wing leaders, torching of liquor shops and other acts of violence. CHANDIGARH: The US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) banned by the Centre on Wednesday for its antiIndia activities is a previously little-known fringe outfit that emerged as the face of the secessionist campaign for Khalistan in a short span.
The SFJ started out as a human rights advocacy group in 2007 to run a campaign to create awareness about “denial of rights” to Sikhs in India and build a “movement” in the community.
The organisation found traction due to its legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who hails from Amritsar and has been its most vocal and known face.
Pannun struck a chord with a section of the Sikh diaspora by initiating legal proceedings against top political leaders from India such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and obtaining summons against them on “charges of human rights violations”, when they visited the West. But the outfit turned into a Pakistan-backed advocate and motivator of militant groups and activists before long, leading to the ban for espousing militant activities from havens abroad and involvement in “anti-national and subversive” activities in Punjab.
FUNDING AND BACKING FROM ISI
A dossier prepared on SFJ by security agencies shows the ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ it launched in 2014 for a separate Sikh state has the backing and funding from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan through a secret operation codenamed ‘Project Express’.
The ISI has been helping SFJ promote its campaign for a referendum on Punjab through a front organisation, the Dyal Singh Research and Cultural Forum (DSRCF), which has been putting up posters and hoardings, besides distributing pamphlets, at gurdwaras in Pakistan during visits of Sikh pilgrims from India from time to time, security officials say. Pak-based votaries of Khalistan have also been openly supporting the campaign.
Security agencies have leads to establish that SFJ associates in US, Canada, UK, etc. have not only been radicalising, funding and inciting poor and unemployed youth of Punjab but are also in contact with gangsters and criminals operating in the state. They also cite SFJ’s growing nexus with Kashmiri separatists as a worry sign. In February 2019, SFJ blamed the Indian government for the Pulwama attack and made an appeal to Sikh soldiers not to fight for the country.
MILITANT ACTIVITIES
In the last three years, the Punjab Police registered half-a-dozen cases against SFJ leaders and operatives abroad and their supporters in Punjab for targeting right-wing leaders, torching of liquor shops and other acts of violence, besides recovering arms and ammunition. Security officials say they have ample evidence to prove that such modules were being radicalised and funded by SFJ leaders and operatives, including Pannun and Paramjit Singh Pamma, based in various south-eastern, western and even African countries, through fund transfers over MTSS (money transfer service scheme) or hawala channels.
Pamma, wanted for crimes in Punjab, and other SFJ activists were seen at an India-England Cricket World Cup match at Edgsbaston on June 30, wearing T-shirts advocating ‘Referendum 2020’ and had to be bundled out by security personnel.
