Assassination attempt reported on US Sikh activist

Community political advocacy org Sikhs For Justice have reported there was a failed assassination attempt on a respected USA based activist who was an associate of Shaheed (martyr) Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The incident occurred last week (11th August), involving volunteer organizer of the Khalistan (free Sikh homeland) Referendum Satinder Pal Singh Raju, whose vehicle was “sprayed with bullets” on interstate 505 near San Francisco, according to a release from Sikhs For Justice. A video of Raju’s vehicle shows bullet holes through a window and further damage in the interior. Raju escaped with no serious injuries.

The shooting is the latest in a long series of assassinations and assassination attempts targeting Khalistan activists across the globe, including the failed assassination attempt of Sikhs For Justice General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun last year in New York and the shooting of the home of Brampton based activist Inderjeet Singh Gosal in February, shortly before another alleged assassination of a Khalistan Referendum organizer in Italy. Further incidents in India continue to point at a likely Indian State killing spree targeting Sikh critics by the far-right BJP regime.

The assassination of Shaheed Nijjar last year in Surrey (BC, Canada) triggered a major geopolitical fallout which has seen Canada, the USA and global intelligence network Five Eyes confirm issues of Indian transnational repression targeting Sikhs. The Indian State assassins of Nijjar are currently in the process of trial in Canada.

Indian State terrorist Nikhil Gupta is currently going through trial in the US for his role in the attempted murder of Pannun, and recently said in court that he was acting on a “mission assigned by the Indian government” in a plea for leniency.

Further adding weight to beliefs India is behind the targeting of the Sikh diaspora activists is the words of figures like Major Gaurav Arya, a military figure who has become the country’s leading source of intelligence and security issues of India. Last year Arya stated India are looking to pay “underworld…mafia” to attack Khalistanis in overseas countries. This kind of rhetoric has since been repeated and supported by major Indian State figures including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Foreign Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh. Arya also recently said India are funding right-wing Canadian thinktanks and political parties in hope of using them to further target Khalistanis.

Most notoriously, Arya also said India would “eliminate” UK Sikh activist Shaheed Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda last year in May, just months before he died of suspected poisoning, in a case being dubbed England’s “Litvinenko Part 2”. The UK are yet to properly look into India’s transnational repression and interference in the country, despite other western nations doing so.

The Sikhs For Justice release details Raju’s extensive involvement in the organization of North American Khalistan Referendum events. The non-binding democratic referendum aims to offer diaspora Sikhs a chance to vote either for-or-against Punjab becoming a free Sikh homeland, something many major Sikh groups have officially advocated for since at least 1986. Sikhs For Justice have also held the referendum across Australia and Europe, with tens of thousands of participants in all events. Results of the referendum will be tallied and possibly presented to the United Nations, for support for a possible binding referendum in India.

Despite the democratic nature of the referendum campaign, India has banned it and designated the group – led by New York based lawyer Pannun – a terror outfit, a ruling which they cemented for at least the next five years just recently.

The attempted assassination will only intensify efforts from various Sikh groups including The Sikh Coalition USA to have US authorities immediately act on Indian interference and transnational repression.

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