The charge sheet, which names 16 defendants, including SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and Babbar Khalsa International chief Paramjit Singh, aka Pamma, also claimed that SFJ was trying to radicalize the youth of Kashmir and openly extending its support for the secession of Kashmir from India.
The charge sheet has been filed at a time when there have been concerns that SFJ and others Khalistani The teams, operating out of Pakistan, would try to use the current unrest over farmer agitation to infiltrate the uproar and use it to provoke discontent.
Pannun, a resident of New York, Nijjar, based in Canada, and Paramjit ‘Pamma’, based in the United Kingdom, were listed as ‘individual terrorists’ in the Fourth Program of the Illicit Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in July.
The SFJ, banned as an ‘illegal association’ under the UAPA, was described Wednesday by the NIA as a “front organization of Khalistani terrorist groups” with ties to Pakistan. NIA sources said that the SFJ had been running a vigorous campaign on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube and had been calling India-based mobile phone numbers to further its pro-Khalistan agenda. ‘ Referendum 2020 ‘.
The charge sheet in the ‘Referendum 2020’ case, filed in special court here on Wednesday, named 16 sponsors and members of the SFJ abroad. The defendants are Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Avtar Singh Pannun (United States), Gurpreet Singh Baagi (United Kingdom), Harpreet Singh (United States), Paramjit Singh ‘Pamma’ (United Kingdom), Sarabjit Singh Bannur (UK), Amardeep Singh Purewal (California, USA), JS Dhaliwal (Canada) and others.
The NIA said its investigation found that the SFJ, a secessionist group floating in the garb of a ‘human rights group’ with offices in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, was an organization front of Khalistani terrorist groups operating from Pakistan. “Within the framework of this campaign (Referendum 2020), numerous social media accounts have been launched on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube channels and various websites, which are used to spread sedition and enmity on the grounds of region and religion, radicalize impressionable youth, disturb peace and harmony and raise funds for terrorist activities, ”the agency said.
The NIA said SFJ has been trying to undermine the security of the Indian state by instigating Sikh personnel in the military to rise up in a mutiny against India. “The SFJ is also trying to radicalize the youth of Kashmir and openly extending its support for the secession of Kashmir from India,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
After Gurpatwant Pannun, Nijjar and Paramjit ‘Pamma’ – the main sponsors of SFJ – were designated as “terrorists” under the UAPA, the NIA identified real estate properties belonging to Gurpatwant Pannun in Amritsar and Nijjar in Jalandhar. Based on the NIA’s request, the Home Office has ordered the seizure of these properties.
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