India seizes assets of Sikh separatist leader

On September 23, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India seized a house in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab state, belonging to lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. He lives and works mainly in Canada and is also the founder of the Sikh Justice for Justice (SFJ) organization headquartered in the US.

NIA officers also seized a piece of agricultural land belonging to Pannun in Amritsar, also in Punjab. The Indian investigation agency accused lawyer Pannun of “inciting criminals and youth in Punjab” through social media to form a separatist government of Khalistan, which “threatens the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” of India.

The seizure order was announced days after Pannun posted a video telling Hindus in Canada to "go back to India" if they supported New Delhi in the India-Canada diplomatic crisis.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since the assassination of cleric Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the leader of the SFJ's Canadian branch, in June near Vancouver.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that there were “credible grounds to believe that Indian government agents” were involved in Nijjar’s death. New Delhi dismissed Trudeau’s accusations as “ridiculous,” then responded by expelling a Canadian diplomat and suspending visa applications for Canadian citizens.

Pannun also spoke to an Indian television station, criticizing the Indian government for Nijjar's death. He confirmed that Nijjar had been a "close associate" for more than 20 years and that they considered each other brothers.

The Indian government placed Pannun on its terrorist list in 2020, issuing an arrest warrant for the lawyer on terrorism and separatism charges. Indian media reported that Pannun was in his 50s, but did not specify his exact year of birth.

The SFJ organization is banned in India because of its separatist stance, demanding the establishment of a separate nation for Sikhs called Khalistan.

The Khalistan movement began in the 1930s when India was a British colony. It gained momentum in the early 1980s, when Sikh clerics resorted to violence in retaliation for Indian security forces storming the Golden Temple, the Sikhs' holiest site of worship, in the city of Amritsar.

At the height of religious strife, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards in 1984. The Indian government suppressed the Khalistan movement at home in the 1990s, but many influential members took refuge in Canada, Britain, and Australia.