Pannun calls for shutdown of airports from Amritsar to Ayodhya ahead of Jan 22

New Delhi, Jan 8

Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun continued his incendiary provocation of violence against India on Monday, calling for shutdown of airports from Amritsar to Ayodhya ahead of the January 22 Ram temple Pran Pratishtha ceremony.

The legal counsel of the outlawed Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) group also exhorted Muslims in the country to "oppose" the ceremony, and urged them to carve out ‘Urduistan’ from India.

"From Amritsar to Ayodhya, shut down airports. Now is the time, Muslims, you carve out a country Urduistan from India," Pannun said in a fresh video message released on Monday.

Threatening that the ceremony is going to have a "global consequence", Pannun said, "every Muslim must protest".

Pannun's threats come as preparations for the Ram Mandir's Pran Pratishtha' in Ayodhya are in full swing with over one lakh devotees expected to be in the city for the event, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The newly-inaugurated Maharishi Valmiki International Airport in Ayodhya has already received more than 40 requests for landing of chartered flights for the mega religious event.

Last week, the Sikh separatist had issued another video calling for India's “economic destruction” by targeting the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from March 12, coinciding with the 31st anniversary of serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993.

Pannun was declared a designated terrorist in 2020 by India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

While the US claims to have shielded him from a purported assassination by Indian agents, he is wanted in nearly two dozen cases, including some of terrorism and sedition in India.

In September 2023, his properties in Amritsar and Chandigarh cities were seized by the NIA, which also charged him and his separatist organisation under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA on November 20.

Following the NIA charges, the radical Sikh and his secessionist group gave a call to pro-Khalistan elements to “picket” Air India’s outbound flights from the airports in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver on December 1, 2023.