Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday hailed the Union Government’s decision to ban pro-Khalistan group ‘The Sikhs for Justice’ and said it deserved to be treated as a “terrorist organisation”.
Amarinder Singh termed the move as the first step towards protecting the nation from “anti-India or secessionist designs” of the ISI-backed organisation.
US-based SFJ which pushes for ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ as part of its separatist agenda was banned by the Centre for its alleged anti-national activities, officials said.
“Though the outfit deserved to be treated as a terrorist organisation, the government of India has at least taken a long-overdue stand against the SFJ, which had unleashed a wave of terror in Punjab in recent years,” Amarinder Singh said in a statement issued here.
With this step, the Centre has finally shown its much-needed intent to crack down on the organisation, which was “overtly being backed by Pakistan’s ISI in its conspiratorial campaign” over ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’, launched in 2014, said the CM.
He, however, asserted that the Central Government would have to take more proactive measures to aggressively crack down on SFJ and its affiliates or operatives in the interest of national security. “SFJ’s activities went beyond being unlawful and posed a major threat to the very existence of our nation,” said Amarinder Singh.