Chandigarh, April 27, 2019 (Yes Punjab News)
The appointment of a wanted Khalistani terrorist to spearhead the `Khalistan Referendum 2020’ campaign has further exposed the true motive and intent behind the separatist movement, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said on Saturday, urging the central government to press the global community to join India in cracking down on this grave threat to its peace and security.
Reacting strongly to media reports to the roping in by Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was on the list of wanted persons he had shared with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their meeting in Amritsar in February 2018, Captain Amarinder expressed concern over the Canadian government’s covert and overt support to the hardliners operating from its soil to create disturbance in India.
Even as he urged Trudeau not to play with fire by allowing such elements to use Canadian territory to disrupt India’s peace and stability, the Chief Minister called upon the Indian government to take a more proactive stand in dealing with these forces trying to unleash trouble in the country, particularly Punjab, from other parts of the world.
The Chief Minister also expressed concern over Canada’s failure to rein in such hardline elements seeking to disturb India’s peace and security, and posing a grave threat in particular to Punjab. It was in the interest of any administration in Canada to check the spread of such forces on its soil, he added, warning that allowing the perpetuation of such elements would be detrimental to Canada’s own safety and security in the long run.
Captain Amarinder pointed out that Nijjar was accused by India of running a terror camp in British Columbia, also accused of target killings in India and conducting weapons training for anti-India terrorists in the west. Said to be close to the legal advisor of secessionist organization Sikhs For Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Nijjar’s taking over of the Khalistan Referendum 2020 campaign was a clear sign of the movement assuming even more diabolical proportions, he added.
The Referendum 2020 had never been the peaceful movement it claimed to be, but by roping in Nijjar, it was clear that SFJ had given up all pretensions of steering a non-violent campaign, said the Chief Minister.
Given that the movement was openly supported and backed by Pakistan’s ISI, which had been pushing terror into India directly and indirectly for decades now, it was blatantly clear that the so-called Referendum campaign was nothing but a front for the agency to boost its anti-India agenda, he added. He further said that Referendum 2020 was nothing but a front for the ISI and it’s Agents of Interest (AOI), such as Pannun & Nijjar, to promote & execute terrorist acts in Punjab and India.
By bringing Nijjar into the mainstream of the movement, SFJ and ISI had well and truly shown their hand, and their intention of creating trouble for Punjab in any which way, said Captain Amarinder. With the Sikhs in India rejecting outright the divisive propaganda of SFJ and Islamabad, Nijjar was clearly a last-ditch resort to breathe some life into the campaign, but, like all their previous efforts, this will also fail, he added.
