‘We take every threat seriously, probe on’: Canada minister on SFJ’s Air India warning

NEW DELHI: Canada police have launched a probe into a video warning Sikhs not to fly on Air India on November 19, 2023, claiming that their lives may be in danger.
“We take every threat seriously, especially when it concerns airlines,” Canada’s transportation minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters in Ottawa. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he added, “is doing an investigation.”
The video was posted by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the head of the banned group Sikhs for Justice(SFJ).Pannun is designated as a terrorist by the Indian government, and has been involved in several anti-India activities and campaigns, such as the so-called Khalistan Referendum.
“We are asking the Sikh people not to fly via Air India. From November 19, there will be a global blockade. Air India won’t be allowed to operate. Sikh people, don’t travel by Air India after November 19. Your life can be in danger,” Pannun said in the video that is circulating on social media.
The video has raised concerns and tensions between India and Canada, as it evokes the memory of the 1985 Air India bombing, which killed 329 people, mostly Canadians of Indian origin, in the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.

The Indian government has called the video a “terrorist threat” and has urged the Canadian authorities to take swift and stern action against Pannun and his associates.
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that operatives from India might have been involved in the June assassination of a Sikh leader in Canada, close to Vancouver. Following these allegations, Canada deported an Indian diplomat suspected of being connected to the murder.
India has categorically rejected these explosive claims as “absurd.”
The unresolved case and India’s dissatisfaction with Canada’s approach to Sikh separatist elements have led to a significant deterioration in diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Watch Khalistani terrorist Pannun threatens to blow up Air India flights