Pro-Khalistan extremist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun reportedly warned Sikh people to not fly via Air India on November 19. "Doing so can put your live in danger," he can be heard saying in a purported video that went viral on social media on Saturday.
Livemint.com couldn't independently verify the video.
Pannun is one of the founders of the US-based separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and actively lobbies for a separate state for Sikhs, which they call Khalistan, in the US, Canada and the UK.
"We are asking Sikh people not to fly via Air India on November 19. There will be a global blockade. Air India won't be allowed to operate. Don't travel by Air India on November 19 or your life will be in danger," Pannun said in the one-minute-37-second video that was circulating on social media.
"It is the same day 19th November on which the final match of the World Terror Cup will be played," he said.
The Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) leader also said Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport will remain shut on November 19. He even proposed to change the name of the airport.
"The name of this airport will be Shahid Beant Singh and Shahid Satwant Singh Khalistan airport when Punjab will be liberated," he added.
This is not the first that SFJ chief Pannun issued a threat. In September, he urged Hindu-Canadians to leave Canada amid a diplomatic row over the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Pannun's warning come in the wake of persisting tensions between India and Canada. The two countries engaged in a diplomatic row in September after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged involvement of Indian agents in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, in British Columbia in June.
However, India rejected the claims, saying, “The allegations of Government of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated.”
Canada is yet to provide any evidence to support its claim of an Indian hand in the killing of Hardeep Nijjar.
Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was killed outside a gurdwara in Canada's Surrey on June 18.
In July 2020, Pannun was designated a terrorist by the Union home ministry and two months later, the government ordered the attachment of his properties under Section 51A of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Pannun reportedly worked closely with Nijjar, whose murder has been at the centre of the diplomatic standoff between Ottawa and New Delhi.
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