New evidence reveals India planned to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun at Sikh wedding in Canada

LONDON: Sikh Justice (SFJ) leader and India’s most wanted man Gurpatwad Singh Panun was also the target of a failed Indian assassination plot in Canada at a Sikh wedding, new evidence has revealed.

The US government disclosed a few months ago that it had thwarted a high-profile Indian government assassination plot 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 until now that the Indian government had also planned to assassinate Pannun at a wedding in Canada where he was widely rumored to be present.

Canada is respected CBC News reported that the Nov. 3, 2023, arrest of Amandeep Singh — one of four men accused of murder linked by Ottawa directly to the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — in Brampton, Ontario, came a day before a wedding in the city who gathered key figures from New Delhi’s Sikh enemy list who were pro-Khalistan Sikhs from Canada and the US.

Amandeep was arrested with a loaded FN509 9mm gun containing a prohibited extended magazine of 24 rounds, while three others were arrested with loaded magazines. All of them are believed to have been looking for Pannun, who is also a lawyer based in New York.

Sikh insiders had expected US-Canadian Pannun, considered one of India’s top priority targets, to attend the wedding because of his close friendship with the groom’s father and longtime Khalistani activist Santokh Singh Khela.

Initially charged with firearms, drug and trespassing offences, Amandeep 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 by mistakenly approaching a confidential informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency to hire a hitman.

Pannun, who is currently under the protection of the US government, leads Sikhs for Justice, the organization behind the global referendum effort.

India has labeled him a wanted terrorist, but claims his group operates exclusively through peaceful means.

Pannun decided that his presence at the wedding would burden his host and other guests, prompting him to call Khela and announce his decision to pull out of the gathering, CBS News reported.

Killer Amandeep was arrested in Brampton on November 3, 2023 – four and a half months after Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered in the gurdwara parking lot on June 18, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly stated that there is credible information indicating Indian government involvement in Nijjar’s murder under the direction of Narendra Modi.

The November 4, 2023 wedding of the son of a prominent Khalistani activist at a Brampton gurdwara was attended by a number of Khalistani who also have reason to believe their lives are in danger from the Indian government, including some who have received “Duty to Warn” letters by Canadian intelligence.At the last minute, Pannun called his friend and told him that he would not be attending due to security concerns and also because his presence would take attention away from the family.

On 10 September 2023, Sikhs for Justice held one of a series of referendums on Punjabi independence from India at the local Gurdwara in Surrey, the polling station was overwhelmed by the large turnout and many local Sikhs were turned away unable to participate. a ballot. A public meeting was held at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara to schedule a second round of voting for October 29, 2023.

Longtime Khalistani activist Santokh Singh Khela said he realized the second round of voting would conflict with his son’s wedding, which had been scheduled for the previous day.

“We have to postpone it because all the Sikh referendum volunteers, all the guys, the organizers, everyone was coming to the wedding. So we decided there, [the] the wedding will take place in a week. After that, the date was November 4,” said Khela CBC News.

The new wedding date was announced publicly. This was said by confidential sources CBC News that there are informers inside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara who are passing on information to the Government of India.

“It was widely assumed that I would be in Brampton for the wedding of the son of one of my dearest and oldest friends. This was the general perception in the community, that I would attend a religious service because that is the only service I have ever attended in the past Until a day or so (before), I was very sure that I would go to avoid being a burden to his family my friend’s.

Moninder Singh Bual, who was a close friend and associate of Nijjar and who also received “Duty to Warn” letters from the RCMP at the same time in 2022, arrived in Brampton from British Columbia (BC) on the evening of November 3, 2023 .

“It was the night before the wedding and I was there for it,” she said.

Bual said he heard chatter while in B.C. about potential risks in Ontario.

“I had heard something as I was leaving Vancouver, that I should be very careful while I was in Toronto, as there were people here in Vancouver who could possibly be in Toronto now who might want to harm us in some way.” he said.

“I think you would cite them as probably Sikh leadership from across the country. A lot of people who were there that day, whether they’re from Toronto or Calgary or Vancouver or Montreal, you know, they’re fully invested in this Khalistan. move,” he added.

On the same day Bual arrived in Ontario, Peel Regional Police made two traffic stops — the first at noon in Vaughan, Ontario, and the second nearly four hours later in Brampton.

They arrested Amandeep, who was booked on firearms, drug and probation charges. Last month, he was also charged with first-degree murder in Nijjar’s death.

The first traffic stop produced a loaded FN509 9mm handgun containing a prohibited 24-round extended magazine. The second stop produced two more loaded extended magazines.

CBC News said he received a video showing Amandeep driving a car on a road at night with his left hand on the steering wheel and a ground-based semi-automatic pistol in his right hand.

Hela said CBC News that Canadian police have contacted him several times since the wedding, encouraging him to take precautions by installing cameras in the front and back of his home among other things.

Bual returned to BC. the day after the wedding unaware of the arrests on November 3rd.

“Looking back at that weekend, the kinds of arrests that were made for the fourth shooter in the Hardip case,” he said.

“Now it looks like there are a lot of dots that could be connected about that weekend. We have the US indictment coming out a few weeks later and it says it wasn’t just Hardeep. There were three or four other Sikh Khalistan leaders in Canada [allegedly targeted by India]. “There might not have been a better time than that weekend, when so many of us came together, to actually make something happen,” he added.

Pannun, Bual and Khela all said CBC News that the arrests of Amandeep Singh and seven other men – including three others accused of Nijjar’s murder – have not ended the threat they face from the Indian government.

“The Indian Prime Minister Mr. Modi, their Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, their Defense Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh have all made statements that they are actually taking credit almost for these kinds of killings in foreign countries,” Bual said.

On May 23, Modi appeared to take credit for the killings abroad at a campaign rally in Patiala, Punjab.

Modi told the crowd his government “has the courage to go to the homes of terrorists and kill them”.

Pannun said Indian authorities are not getting clear enough messages from the US and Canadian governments that illegal activities in North America will not be tolerated.

“Modi has said that when he returns to power within six months, there will be no accused terrorists left,” he said.

“They’re going to wipe everyone out.”