Canadian police have refuted claims made by the pro-Khalistan separatist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ that gunmen violently attempted to disrupt a voter registration drive related to their secessionist program called the Punjab 2020 referendum.
On August 15, as local SFJ activists headed to the Indian consulate in Toronto to campaign, eight men were arrested for a complaint by an unidentified “concerned citizen”, and five were charged with crimes. related to firearms after a loaded handgun was recovered from his vehicle.
SFJ had alleged that the vehicle was flying in the Indian Tricolor and the intention was to sabotage its driving, and this was also reported in the local media.
However, the Peel regional police have denied that this incident had a political slant. When asked if this had any connection to the event proposed by the pro-Khalistan group and the accusations made by SFJ, a PRP spokesperson said that “he had received no information that the people were ‘Indian agents.’
In another response to the Indo-Canadian Voice, another PRP spokesperson said: “The local media have made comments referring to threats of a political nature, our investigation did not find this to be so.”
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The charges specified by the spokesperson were not related to threats of the nature stated by SFJ.
The men were picked up from a parking lot in the city of Brampton in the greater Toronto area and were identified as Simerjit Singh, 23, of Georgetown, Arundeep Sood, 40, of Brampton, Manpreet Singh, 21, who was cited as having no address Fixed, Shivampreet Singh, 21, of Brampton and Mehakdeep Maan, 22, of Brampton.
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SFJ’s general counsel, Gurpatwant Pannun, had alleged that the men threatened to shoot a local activist belonging to the separatist organization, calling it a “wake-up call” for the Justin Trudeau government.
The men were charged by investigators with the criminal investigation bureau of the 21 division of firearms crimes. They were released on bail after appearing before the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton.
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