Tensions strike India and Canada once again as separatist leader warns of threat to Air India flights
India and Canada are once again facing diplomatic tensions after a prominent separatist leader warned Sikhs not to travel on Air India flights this month, citing potential life-threatening consequences.
The Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun released a video, repeating multiple threats of danger to those travelling by Indian state carrier Air India on 19 November.
“We are asking the Sikh people to not via Air India on 19 November. There will be a global blockade. Do not travel by Air India or your life will be in danger,” he said, repeating the threats in a 1.35-minute-long video circulating on social media.
“It is my warning to the government of India,” said the leader, who was earlier rumoured to be killed in a car accident in the US.
The famous leader, who is labelled an independent terrorist by the Indian government, claimed that New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport will be shut down on 19 November, calling for its name to be changed.
India is hosting the final match of the international men’s cricket World Cup on the same date.
“It is the same day on which the final match of the World Terror [sic] Cup will be played. It will be shown to the world that a genocide of Sikhs happened in India and India did it. When we will liberate Punjab, the name of these airports will be Shahid Beant Singh and Shahid Satwant Singh airport,” Mr Pannun said, mentioning the two separatist leaders who assassinated former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984.
The Independent has not verified the authenticity of the video.
On Sunday, Indian officials said they would discuss the threat with Canadian authorities.
“We shall take up the threat against Air India flights originating from and terminating in Canada, with the concerned Canadian authorities,” India’s High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma told the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times.
He added that the Indian authorities have seen the video issued by the Khalistani leader.
“We have studied the contents of the video, which is in clear violation of the Chicago Convention, which lays out a framework for international civil aviation operations. Canada and India, among many other nations, are Parties to the Convention,” the envoy said.
India and Canada are needed to tackle such threats according to the bilateral civil aviation agreement, he said.
The threats to target flights and India’s biggest airport bear a resemblance to the terrorist attack orchestrated by Khalistan leaders in June 1985, resulting in the death of 329 people on board Air India flight 182.
This comes after Mr Verma said that the Canadian police probe into the murder of a Sikh separatist leader this year has been damaged by a high-level Canadian official’s public statement.
“I would go a step further and say now the investigation has already been tainted,” Mr Verma told the Globe and Mail. “A direction has come from someone at a high level to say India or Indian agents are behind it,” he said, without naming the high-level official.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau sent the bilateral ties into limbo in September after accusing Indian involvement in the murder of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.
The two nations have been hit by the diplomatic row, which resulted in Canada withdrawing 41 diplomats from India after New Delhi in September asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence following Canada’s allegations over Nijjar’s killing.
Mr Verma said that India has still not been presented with concrete evidence by Canada or Canada’s allies of India’s involvement, despite a US envoy saying that the Five Eyes alliance is aware of India’s interference.
