Sikhs for Justice: Gunshots at the Canadian house of a Pannun affiliate

Toronto: A general lawyer for Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) affiliate, Gurpatwant Pannun, was shot at his residence in the Greater Toronto Area early on Monday morning.

The home is now being built in Brampton. It belonged to Inderjeet Singh Gosal, who assisted in planning the September 23 “Khalistan Referendum” in Surrey, British Columbia, after the June 18 murder of its organizer, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The event has not been publicly announced by the police, and no reason has been given for it.

On February 17, Gosal is organizing a demonstration outside the Indian embassy in Toronto to commemorate the eight months after Nijjar’s death.

Gosal said in a statement issued by SFJ, “I have been leading Khalistan Freedom Rallies in front of the Indian consulate and I have been targeted for the same exact reason that Nijjar was assassinated by Indian agents, i.e. our campaigning for the Khalistan Referendum.”

Pannun said that India was responsible for the event and issued a warning, saying that New Delhi will be held accountable if the current wave of violent assaults against pro-Khalistan Sikhs became a pattern.

Nik Gupta, an Indian citizen, is being held in the Czech Republic as he awaits probable extradition to the United States to answer to allegations that he tried to hire a hitman to kill Pannun.

The most recent incident comes after several gunshots were fired in the early hours of February 1 at Simranjeet Singh’s Surrey home, a business colleague of Nijjar. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) station in Surrey detained two adolescents on February 6 for the reckless use of a handgun and the intentional discharge of a firearm, while pro-Khalistan organizations also held India responsible for the event. Later, they were freed without being prosecuted at the time.

“Collect evidence to advance the investigation and determine the motive of this shooting” is what the investigators there are still doing.

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on September 18, 2018, that there were “credible allegations” of a possible connection between Indian agents and Nijjar’s murder, relations between India and Canada took a severe hit. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, or IHIT, is looking into the case.