By Deepak Sharma

New Delhi, Jun 15 (IANS): In a bid to rekindle the Khalistan movement, separatist Sikh groups based in Canada and the US are being promoted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to spearhead an anti-India hate campaign. More than twenty phone numbers of Khalistan extremists, originating from the US, Pakistan and other destinations, used in spreading audio messages in various districts in Punjab, have been identified by Indian Intelligence agencies.

Top sources in the agencies revealed to IANS that maximum calls have originated from numbers bearing US code such as (+1 253 533 71XX, +1 405 835 23XX , +1 833 779 04XX). Most of these numbers are being used by banned extremist outfit Sikhs For Justice(SFJ).

SFJ's extremist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, wanted in several cases of terror in India, is said to be the mastermind behind the recent anti-India campaign "Referendum 2020".

One of Pannu's alleged aides, Imran Malik, based in Karachi, called several people in Punjab and Chandigarh, including journalists, and informed them about the secret referendum of Sikhs relating to demand for creating an independent Khalistan state.

Sources in the agencies disclosed that Pannu, based in the US, and a few Sikh extremists hiding in Germany and Britain are being brought under one umbrella of the SFJ by the ISI handlers. Reports said that Pannu had travelled to Pakistan last year and also set up an office in Karachi.

The SFJ-ISI nexus is reportedly using fake IDs on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to promote their venomous separatist thoughts. On a complaint of the Indian government, micro-blogging site Twitter has suspended Pannu's account in June 2019.

At the behest of ISI, the SFJ leader had shot off a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping last fortnight. In his letter Pannu has sought support of the Chinese government for SFJ's demand of a separate Sikh state.

The letter was written by the SFJ, a day after Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh warned China that India wouldn't tolerate any bullying by Beijing over the ongoing border tension between the two countries. Amarinder Singh's government has also registered several cases of sedition against Pannu and his henchmen in Punjab.

Meanwhile, India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing is collecting inputs through its overseas sources against a few key Khalistani separatist leaders located in Germany.

These separatist leaders who were once operating from the soil of Pakistan had got asylum from the German establishment. RAW suspects that one of these separatist leaders - Gurdev Singh Bagga - was instrumental in delivering weapons including AK-56 rifles and grenades, from Pakistan into the border district of Tarn Taran district using sophisticated drones. Bagga is said to be close to Pannu, the mastermind of referendum 2020.