NEW DELHI: Even as death threats were issued to two more Indian diplomats on Wednesday by splashing the names of India's high commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami and consul general Shashank Vikram on menacing posters across social media platforms, speculation swirled about the condition of two leading Khalistani secessionists."News" of the death of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the incendiary founder of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) who is notorious for his provocative calls to secede from India, in a road crash on highway 101 in California surged through social media, leading Sukhi Chahal, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Khalsa Today based in the US, to insist that the SFJ chief was "alive"."Regarding news about the alleged car accident in my neighbourhood in California and the death of SFJ's Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, I would like to emphasise that the information is fake and false.
I kindly urge everyone to refrain from spreading his misinformation," Chahal tweeted.This stemmed the intensity of the "news" about Pannun's condition but could not stanch it, perhaps because the otherwise voluble Pannun has been strikingly mum since the fatal shooting of his close associate Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in Canada's British Columbia by two unidentified persons.Almost simultaneously, news of the "death" of another leading Khalistani figure, Wadhwa Singh, part of the secessionist bunch being sheltered by Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), also rippled across social media platforms.
Wadhwa is linked to Rinda Sandhu, a key figure associated with ISI's effort to re-ignite Khalistani secessionism.Reports of the "deaths" of Pannun and Wadhwa Singh came in the aftermath of the deaths of three leading Khalistanis - Pakistan-based Paramjeet Singh Panjwar, Nijjar and Avatar Singh Khanda, face of the attack on the Indian high commission in London earlier this year - in circumstances which have triggered suspicions among the secessionist ranks and provoked them to issue "kill" posters against diplomats.Before targeting Doraiswami and Shashank Vikram, posters were circulated to incite harm also to Sanjay Varma and Apoorva Srivastava, India's high commissioner in Canada and the consul general in Toronto, respectively, as well as ambassador to the US Taranjeet Singh Sandhu and the consul general in San Francisco Nagendra Varma.The posters insinuated about the role of pro-India actors in the three deaths, leading to suspicions in the security establishment here about the role of the ISI in the effort to harm Indian diplomats.
Sources in security agencies have for some time been talking about the plan of the notorious Pakistani spy agency to purge ageing Khalistani leaders and replace them with new recruits.
"The hateful campaign against our diplomats is an effort to distract attention and spread hatred against India," a source said.