Sikh secessionist group meets UN officials over Modi govt’s attempts to criminalise Khalistan Referendum

• Sikhs for Justice calls on UN officials and submits dossier explaining India's tactics and attempts to suppress Sikh separatist movement.
• Briefs UN officials on Sikhs’ right to self-determination under international law, and India's use of violence, sedition laws against Sikh activists.
• Says Modi’s "Hindu supremacist government" is enforcing Indian nationalism on Sikhs of India to distort their culture and history.

GENEVA: Secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) have submitted a report, 'India’s Criminalization of Khalistan Referendum', to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a special meeting to inform the international body about India’s attempts to criminalise the entire Khalistan movement, particularly the ongoing Khalistan Referendum.

A two-member delegation, comprising SFJ’s General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and Council of Khalistan President Dr Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, briefed the UN officials on the Sikhs’ right to self-determination under international law, and the Modi government’s use of violence and sedition laws against Khalistan Referendum activists, in India and abroad.

The Sikh representatives informed the UN officials that Modi’s "Hindu supremacist government" is enforcing Indian nationalism on the Sikhs of India to distort their culture and history. They said that the Modi regime is also using various social media platforms to push hyper Indian nationalism and suppress the Khalistan Referendum campaign by blocking the contents and posts advocating for the liberation of Indian Punjab from India through the means of a ballot.

The delegation told the officials that Indian security officials have been visiting and meeting the government officials in the UK, Canada, USA and Europe to impress upon the governments to label SFJ as a terrorist entity in a bid to block its Khalistan Referendum activism.

Through evidence, the delegation told the UN officials how US-based lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is also the general counsel of SFJ, Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar and UK-based Paramjeet Singh Pamma were charged for sedition by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for organising pro-farmer rallies outside Indian Missions in foreign countries on UN Human Rights Day 2020.

The UN officials were informed how India declared SFJ a “terrorist organisation” and Gurpatwant as a “terrorist”, merely for advocating the secession of Punjab from India through the Referendum and just and peaceful activism, without any shred of evidence to back up criminal labelling of terrorism.

The SFJ delegation also submitted to UN a copy of a recent report 'Analysis of the #RealSikh Influence Operation' prepared by UK-based NGO Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), which exposes a coordinated influence operation that uses fake personas on multiple social media platforms to promote narratives arguing that “real” Sikhs support the Indian government and Indian nationalism, and that advocates of Sikh autonomy and independence are extremist or terrorist.

During the meeting, Pannun conveyed to the UN officials that thousands of Sikhs in India and abroad are facing repression in the form of criminal charges, torture, and harassment at the hands of the Indian government solely on account of supporting and participating in the Khalistan Referendum – a democratic initiative to determine the will of the people on the question of the right to self-determination.

The dossier handed over to the OHCHR states that Sikhs suffered at the hands of the Indian government in 1984 where they were the victims of a genocidal assault on one of their holiest temples known as the Darbar Sahib, the golden temple of Amritsar.

“Once they had completed the destruction of the golden temple, the Indian army unleashed a wave of pogroms in which Sikhs were being hunted down by the police of Punjab, as well as extremist citizens. Many of these officers received cash rewards from the then finance minister in exchange for murdering Sikhs in fake “encounters” which essentially allowed the police to conduct assassinations with not only impunity, but cash reward. The treatment of minorities in India has been the major fault line for the Republic since its independence, and as to date, the fault line has only grown larger owing to the abysmal human rights record of the successive Indian governments which are prone to dismissing domestic and international law at its convenience," the dossier reads.

“Following these developments, the Sikhs’ desire and the case for self-determination has only strengthened. Though the violence of the decades passed has transformed in shape and mode but not largely subsided, the Sikh community vivid with its memory, is now presenting to the government of India and ultimately, the world, a democratic and lawful solution to realise the right of self-determination.”

The dossier highlights that in light of the increasing popularity of the “Punjab Referendum” campaign, the Republic of India has been determined to crush the peaceful movement by filing a litany of false charges and labelling supporters of the ‘'Punjab Referendum” as “terrorists.”

It points out that the Indian government has done everything within its power to label these agitating farmers as terrorists and the government agents have gone as far as to arrest, torture, and sexually assault protesting farmers.

It reveals that Pannun, while being a licensed attorney in the state of New York, faces an estimated 40 criminal charges in India solely due to his activism in exposing Indian human rights violations and his continued work on the secession of Punjab from India.

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SFJ meets UN officials about Modi govt’s attempts to criminalise Khalistan Referendum

By Murtaza Ali Shah

GENEVA: Secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) has submitted a report “India’s Criminalization of Khalistan Referendum” to Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a special meeting here to inform the international body about India’s attempts to criminalise the whole Khalistan movement, especially the Khalistan Referendum.

Those who met the UN officials here included SFJ’s General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and Dr Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, President Council of Khalistan. They gave a presentation to UN officials on the Sikhs’ right to self-determination under international law and Narendra Modi government’s use of violence and sedition laws against Khalistan Referendum activists, in India and abroad.

The Sikh delegation informed the UN officials that Modi’s Hindu supremacist government is forcing Indian nationalism on the Sikh people in India to distort their culture and history. They told the UN officials that the Modi regime is using social media platforms Facebook, twitter, Instagram and YouTube to push hyper Indian nationalism and to suppress the Khalistan Referendum campaign by blocking the contents and posts advocating for liberation of Punjab from India through the means of ballot.

They told the officials that Indian security officials have been visiting and meeting the govt officials at UK, Canada, USA and Europe to impress upon the governments to label SFJ as terrorist entity and to block its Khalistan Referendum activism.

Through evidence, the delegation told the UN officials how US based lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Canadian Citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar and UK based Paramjeet Singh Pamma were charged for sedition by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for organizing pro farmer rallies outside Indian Missions in foreign countries on UN Human Rights Day 2020.

The UN officials have been informed how India has declared SFJ as “terrorist organization” and its General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as “terrorist” merely for advocating the secession of Punjab from India through Referendum and that he has been declared a “terrorist” for just and peaceful activism, without any shred of evidence to back up criminal labelling of terrorism.

The SFJ delegation also submitted to UN a copy of recent report “Analysis of the #RealSikh Influence Operation” prepared by UK based NGO Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) which exposes a coordinated influence operation that uses fake personas on multiple social media platforms to promote narratives arguing that “real” Sikhs support the Indian government and Indian nationalism, and that advocates of Sikh autonomy and independence are extremist or terrorist.

During the meeting, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJ General Counsel reported to the UN Officials that thousands of Sikhs in India and abroad are facing repression in the form of criminal charges, torture and harassment at the hands of Indian government solely on account of supporting and participating in Khalistan Referendum – a democratic initiative to determine the will of the people on the question of right to self-determination.

The dossier handed over to the OHCHR states that the Sikh community suffered at the hands of the Indian government in 1984 where they were the victims of a genocidal assault on one of their holiest temples known as the Darbar Sahib, the golden temple of Amritsar.

It reads: “Once they had completed the destruction of the golden temple, the Indian army unleashed a wave of pogroms in which Sikhs were being hunted down by the police of Punjab, as well as extremist citizens. Many of these officers received cash rewards from the then finance minister in exchange for murdering Sikhs in faked “encounters” which essentially allowed the police to conduct assassinations with not only impunity, but cash reward. The treatment of minorities in India has been the major fault line for the Republic since its independence, and as to date, the fault line has only grown larger owing to the abysmal human rights record of the successive Indian governments which are prone to dismissing domestic and international law at its convenience.

“Following these developments, the Sikhs’ desire and case for self-determination has only strengthened. Though the violence of the decades passed has transformed in shape and mode but not largely subsided, the Sikh community vivid with its memory, is now presenting to the government of India and ultimately, the world, a democratic and lawful solution to realize the right of self-determination.”

The dossier to the UN body highlights that in light of the increasing popularity of the “Punjab Referendum” campaign, the Republic of India has been determined to crush the peaceful movement by filing a litany of false charges and labelling supporters of the ‘'Punjab Referendum” as “terrorists.”

The dossier to the UN highlights that the Indian government has done everything within its power to label these agitating farmers as terrorists and the government agents have gone as far as to arrest, torture and sexually assault protesting farmers.

It reveals that Guraptwant Singh Pannun, while being a licensed attorney in the state of New York, faces an estimated 40 criminal charges in India solely due to his activism in exposing Indian human rights violations and his continued work on the secession of Punjab from India.