SFJ chief’s threat to CM Dhami made through spoofed numbers: Uttarakhand police

A recorded message received by media personnel and government officials threatened to raise Khalistani flags during G-20 summit at Nainital’s Ramnagar and warned chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami against taking action against Sikhs in the state

The Uttarakhand police on Monday said that the recorded calls of Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, chief of banned pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), received by media personnel and government officials on Sunday, were found to be made through spoofed numbers.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, chief of banned pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ). (File Photo)

The recorded message allegedly threatened to raise Khalistani flags during G-20 summit at Nainital’s Ramnagar and warned chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami against taking action against Sikhs in the state.

“Last evening, a recorded message of banned Sikhs for Justice’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannu was received by media personnel and others. We initially found that the recorded calls were made through spoofed numbers. It appears to be a publicity stunt ahead of the G-20 meeting in Ramnagar. We are active and will not allow their motives to be fulfilled. Our security arrangements are foolproof. Following these calls, we have beefed the security,” said Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj S, deputy inspector general (DIG), special task force (STF).

In the recorded call, the caller could be heard saying, “G-20 delegates….Ramnagar is not India. Ramnagar is Khalistan. Sikhs for Justice is going to raise Khalistani flags during G-20 summit at Ramnagar, at airports and at railway stations to show and internationalise that Ramnagar will be part of Khalistan once we liberate Punjab from Indian occupation through Khalistan Referendum. And if chief minister Dhami tried to file cases against Sikhs in Uttarakhand, you will be held accountable for each crime you are committing. Message is from Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, SFJ general counsel.”

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand police have sounded an alert in its three districts bordering with other states – Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar -- in view of pro-Khalistani preacher and Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and his aides entering the state, a senior police official said.

Police have also put up and distributed posters in villages across the Nepal border in view of their possibility to leave the country.

The Udham Singh Nagar police recently booked a 30-year-old man for allegedly uploading a social media post in support of the absconding Waris Punjab De chief, a police officer said.

The post went viral on social media and had been widely shared and liked by users, police said.

According to senior officials in Uttarakhand, five companies of Paramilitary Force and an Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) have also been deployed in the district to nab Singh and his associates.

The Udham Singh Nagar district is dominated by the Sikh community. They originally migrated here from Pakistan during partition. Many others from Punjab took shelter here during the 1980s and 90s, when terrorism was at its peak in Punjab.

Amid reports of a satellite phone used in Pithoragarh district bordering Nepal, the district police said they didn’t find any evidence that it might have been used by Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides.

Lokeshwer Singh, superintendent of police (SP), Pithoragarh, said, “We had received input in this regard on March 22 and when they traced the satellite phone’s location, it was found in an inhabited area. There is a possibility that it was used by a trekker or hiker. We have no evidence suggesting its use by any Khalistani element.”