Terrorist Pannun sparks alarm with 'Khalistani Army' rhetoric in Canada

The recent announcement by terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to form a Khalistan Army and Sikh Homeland Security force followed by videos showing Sikh men training with semiautomatic rifles on Canadian soil is deeply alarming and could have catastrophic consequences for the Sikh community itself a report has statedRecently Pannun released a video calling on diaspora Sikhs to participate in a socalled Khalistan Referendum in Indianapolis the capital of the US state of Indiana while also floating the idea of a ldquoSikh Homeland Securityrdquo force or Khalistan Army according to a report in lsquoKhalsa VoxrsquoldquoThese are not abstract political arguments They are calculated provocations aimed at restless young men already navigating the pressures of migration identity and easy money The result is visible and ugly a small minority of Sikh youth in the United States and Canada drifting into drugs illegal guns and gang life damaging their own communities and the cities that host themrdquo the report detailedldquoPannunrsquos messaging does not create every troubled youth but it supplies a readymade narrative that romanticizes defiance and externalizes every failure onto India When a young man already exposed to street culture hears that the real war is against the Indian state and that arming or lsquosecuringrsquo the community is legitimate the leap from online rhetoric to real weapons becomes shorterrdquo it statedAccording to the report Canadian intelligence has previously identified Khalistani extremists as a national security concern while the pattern of inflammatory videos followed by displays of force is not a coincidenceHighlighting the evidence on the ground the report said ldquoAcross the Greater Toronto Area and British Columbia IndoCanadian organised crime networks mdash many drawing recruits from Punjabi and Sikh backgrounds mdash have become major players in drug trafficking extortion and targeted shootings Canadian police operations have repeatedly netted young men of Punjabi origin in driveby shootings home invasions and firearms seizures in Brampton Mississauga and SurreyrdquoldquoIn one recent case three Punjabi youths received sentences ranging from 25 months to five years after a shooting and explosive incident in Surrey Extortion rings have systematically targeted Sikhowned businesses filming the attacks and circulating the footage to terrorize the community Youth as young as 16 and 17 have been charged with pointing loaded guns at officers or participating in contractstyle shootingsrdquo it notedThe report stressed that extremists of this kind must be called out for what they are forces of division that ultimately endanger the very communities they claim to defend It further said that Canadian and US authorities should take seriously the overt display of paramilitary activity and the networks that draw young people into transnational criminal activityldquoSikh community leaders gurdwaras and families have an equal duty to reject the glamorisation of guns and the politics of permanent grievance The future of Sikh youth in the diaspora will be decided not by referendums staged for cameras but by whether the next generation chooses education enterprise and peaceful citizenship over the deadend of drugs gangs and imported radicalismrdquo Khalsa Vox mentionedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever