Weeks after US federal prosecutors accused an Indian official of plotting to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, the Khalistan separatist on Tuesday threatened to assassinate Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and DGP Gaurav Yadav on Republic Day. Pannun, founder of the banned Sikhs for Justice, gave the threat in a video message where he also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the Republic Day function on January 26 without security cover. “I dare Modi, you come to Delhi without your security. If you are a popular leader, come to Delhi on Republic Day without security. The SFJ will raise the Khalistani flag and avenge the killing of Shaheed Nijjar,” he said in the video. In June last year, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed by unidentified assailants at a gurdwara in Canada’s Surrey city. Pannun asked gangsters not to allow Mann to unfurl the tricolour in Ludhiana on Republic Day. He said that Mann was a “butcher like Beant Singh”, the former chief minister assassinated by Khalistani terrorists. Chief Minister Mann is a Z-plus protectee. A video clip where Mann says his government will not spare gangsters was also incorporated in Pannun’s video. The separatist said that Punjab’s youths were being branded as gangsters and killed in fake encounters. Pannun asked the youth to get in touch with him and register themselves as voters for a referendum on Khalistan on January 26. In the past, Pannun had threatened former chief minister Amarinder Singh, following whose demand the central government banned SFJ in 2019, and former jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
