Pannun said his video message is a “non-violent call” to “boycott” Air India, and not “bomb” it

New Delhi (IANS): Pro-Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun released a fresh video on Wednesday giving a call to picket Air India flights on December 1 at Toronto and Vancouver international airports in Canada.

Pannun’s call to target the outbound Air India flights came a day after National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against the banned Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) group leader over a November 4 video threatening the Indian flag carrier.

“As General Counsel to SFJ, I reaffirm my call to boycott Air India, and Modi government cannot stop SFJ from running secessionist Khalistan referendum which is the real motive behind NIA’s frivolous terror case,” Pannun said in his new video.

Pannun said that his video message is a “non-violent call” to “boycott” Air India, and not “bomb” it.

He said that his campaign to boycott the airline will continue as “every dollar that goes to Air India and other Indian businesses is being used to perpetuate existential threat to the Sikh population in India.”

In the video, Pannun dedicated this campaign to Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Surrey in June this year.

Listed as an ‘individual terrorist’ by India in 2020, Pannun had said in his video that Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport’s (IGIA) name would be changed and remain shut on November 19.

He also threatened people planning to travel via Air India airlines on that day, saying their “lives would be in danger”, and that the flag carrier would not be allowed to operate in the world.

NIA booked Pannun under sections of the Indian Penal Code, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.