The Union Cabinet announced to ban Sikh fundamentalist organisation Sikhs\nFor Justice(SFJ) under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for\nits alleged anti-national activities, officials said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elaborating on the reasons for the ban, the gazette notification by the\ngovernment said, “Whereas the Sikhs for Justice has been indulging in\nactivities prejudicial to the internal security of India and public order and\nhave the potential of disturbing peace and unity and integrity of the\ncountry.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SFJ, headed by Avtar Singh Pannun and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was\nformed in 2007, but has come to prominence only in the last 5 years as it\nstarted advocating a separate Khalisatn state. It also started an online\nsecessionist campaign, the \u2018Sikh Referendum 2020\u2019. The group’s primary\nobjective is to establish an ‘independent and sovereign country’ in Punjab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Home Ministry officials said 8 to 10 people comprise the SFJ. However, it’s\nonline support is close to 2 lakh. “Present government is very clear that\nanything which might simmer in future needs to be contained,” a senior MHA\nofficial said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Punjab Police has registered 10 different cases against the SFJ and it’s\nmembers, while the NIA is also probing the group in one case. “In all 11\ncases, investigators have found that the SFJ was providing money and logistical\nsupport to local terrorists in Punjab to carry out subversive activities,”\na senior MHA official dealing with the matter told CNN News18. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has welcomed the ban, but also\nsaid that Punjab government would have preferred if the SFJ was labelled as a\nterror organisation and not just under Section 3 which makes membership of the\nSFJ unlawful. He termed the move as the first step towards protecting the\nnation from “anti-India or secessionist designs” of the ISI-backed\norganisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Explaining the decision of not labelling the SFJ as a terror organisation,\nMHA officials said, “As of now the activities of the SFJ fitted the\ndefinition under Section 3 and not under Schedule 1 for declaring a terror\norganisation. We have to keep a standard of proof since the matter will go to a\ntribunal.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan had, in April this year, claimed that it has also banned the SFJ.\nBut India\u2019s Ministry of Home Affairs said they haven’t received any formal\ncommunication from Pakistan in this regard. The government’s decision comes\njust ahead of the next meeting on Kartarpur. Indian intelligence agencies have\nwarned that Sikh fundamental organisations like SFJ plan to use the Kartarpur\ncorridor to further their secessionist agenda by radicalising pilgrims who\ntravel to Pakistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
About Sikh Referendum 2020:<\/strong> The Union Cabinet announced to ban Sikh fundamentalist organisation Sikhs For Justice(SFJ) under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for its alleged anti-national activities, officials said. Elaborating on the reasons for the ban, the gazette notification by the government said, “Whereas the Sikhs for Justice has been indulging in activities prejudicial to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[58],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-3598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-international-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=3598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It is a campaign to liberate Punjab, currently occupied by India.
The fringe organization was founded in 2007.
It is known to push for the Sikh Referendum 2020
SFJ was formed with Avtar Singh Pannun as its president
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as its legal advisor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"