ISLAMABAD: The Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) leader and India’s most wanted man Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was also the target of a failed Indian assassination plot in Canada at a Sikh wedding. The US Government revealed a few months ago that it had foiled a high-profile assassination plot of the Indian Government against Pannun in New York last year – around the time Pannun’s friend and SFJ Canada leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed – but it was not known till now that the Indian Government had also planned to assassinate Pannun at a wedding in Canada where he was widely rumoured to be in attendance.
Canada’s CBC news reported that Amandeep Singh’s arrest in Brampton, Ontario, on November 3, 2023, one of four men charged in a killing linked by Ottawa directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, occurred a day before a wedding in the city that gathered key figures from New Delhi’s Sikh enemies list – pro-Khalistan Sikhs from Canada and the US. Amandeep was arrested with a loaded FN509 9mm handgun containing a prohibited 24-round extended magazine and three more arrested with loaded extended magazines – all of them believed to be looking for Pannun, the New York based lawyer and SFJ founder. Sikh insiders expected US-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, considered one of India’s top-priority targets, to attend the wedding due to his close friendship with the groom’s father and longtime Khalistani activist Santokh Singh Khela. Initially charged with firearms, drug, and breach offences, Amandeep Singh spent six months in pre-trial detention before also being charged with first-degree murder in the Nijjar case.
According to a US federal indictment unsealed in November, Indian agents attempted to assassinate Pannun in New York City by mistakenly approaching a US Drug Enforcement Administration confidential informant to hire a hitman. Pannun, who is currently under the US government protection, leads Sikhs for Justice, the organization behind the global referendum effort. India has labeled him a wanted terrorist, but he asserts that his group operates solely through peaceful means. Pannun decided that his presence at the wedding would impose on his host and other guests, prompting him to call Khela and announce his decision to forgo attending the gathering, CBS News said. The hitman Amandeep was arrested in Brampton on Nov 3, 2023 – four and a half months after Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing in the parking lot of the gurdwara on June 18, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said repeatedly there is credible information pointing to the Indian Government’s involvement in Nijjar’s killing under instructions of Narendra Modi.
The November 4, 2023 wedding of the son of a prominent Khalistani activist at a gurdwara in Brampton was attended by a number of Khalistanis who also have reason to believe that their lives are in danger from the Government of India, including some who have received “Duty to Warn” letters from the Canada intelligence.
At the last minute, Pannun called his friend and told him that he would not attend because of security concerns and also because his presence will take attention away from the family. –Agencies
