The National Investigation Agency, NIA today confiscated the house and land of Canada-based ‘designated individual terrorist’ Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in Amritsar and Chandigarh. The action against the self-styled General Counsel of the outlawed Sikhs for Justice outfit comes as a big boost to the country’s crackdown on the terror and secessionist network being operated from various countries, including Canada.

Pannu has been on NIA’s radar since 2019 when the anti-terror agency had registered its first case against the terrorist. NIA said that Pannu had been playing a major role in promoting and commissioning terror acts and activities, and spreading fear and terror in Punjab and elsewhere in the country through his threats and intimidation tactics. Non-bailable warrants of arrest were issued against Pannu by the NIA Special Court on 3rd February 2021 and he was declared a ‘Proclaimed Offender' on 29th November last year.

NIA investigations have revealed that Pannu’s organization, Sikhs for Justice, was misusing cyberspace to radicalize gullible youth and to instigate them to undertake terrorist crimes and activities. Pannu was the main handler and controller of the SFJ. Sikhs for Justice was declared as an ‘Unlawful Association’ by the government in July 2019.
In recent days, Pannu has been in the news for issuing threats to senior Indian diplomats and government functionaries in public forums. He had also threatened Canadian Hindus for a few days, asking them to leave Canada and claiming that they had adopted a ‘jingoistic approach’ by siding with India.