ISLAMABAD, Jul 29 (APP):Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) announced to begin the Canadian Phase of Khalistan Referendum on September 18 from Toronto, Ontario in which Canadian Sikhs will vote on the question “Should Indian Governed Punjab Be An Independent Country”.Khalistan Referendum Voting Centre in Toronto is named after, martyred Harjinder Singh Pahra, to honor the young pro-Khalistan Sikh who went back to India from Canada to participate in the then ongoing armed struggle for Khalistan in the wake of the Indian Army’s June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple. In a staged police encounter, Indian forces extra-judicially killed Pahra in 1988.
Speaking at a press conference , the SFJ leaders released the map of the areas earmarked for secession from India through Khalistan. Declaring Shimla as the future Capital of Sikh homeland Khalistan, the SFJ’s map encompasses the areas of pre-1966 Punjab which includes Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Sikh majority areas of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Terming September 18 voting as “Journey From Khalistan Rocket To Referendum”, the SFJ’s General Counsel, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, stated that the “ballot is the most potent weapon of this century through which we will balkanize India and liberate Punjab”.
The Sikh leaders said that the Indian government was making baseless propaganda that very few Sikhs wanted separation from India.
“It is our open challenge to the Indian rulers to hold referendum in Indian Punjab and if they lost then they will take back the demand for a separate homeland.”
They appealed to the Sikh community to fully participate in the referendum, adding Sikhs were being murdered under a plan.
Khalistan Referendum voting will be held in phases in Canada in which polling will take place across the country including Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Surrey.
The voting in the global Khalistan Referendum is being held under the supervision of the Punjab Referendum Commission (PRC), www.punjabreferendumcommission.org, a panel of world-renowned non-aligned experts on independence referendums and direct democracy.
Since the launch of the voting on October 31, 2021, from London, despite India’s protests, the governments in UK, Switzerland, and Italy have allowed the Khalistan Referendum to take place in which more than 400,000 Sikhs have voted so far.
