A man was seen wearing a blazer emblazoned with fake “Khalistan Air Force” at a Khalistan Referendum voting centre in Washington DC, USA, raising fresh concerns about separatist propaganda being openly displayed on American soil.
The blazer stunt at the dubious referendum has drawn ridicule online. TikTok users flooded comment sections with sarcasm:
• “Licence truck da haga.”
• “Air Force Khalistan = TikTok cartoon.”
• “And then he takes an illegal U-turn.”
• “Comedy show… now this is 100% free entertainment.”
• “He parked his Uber plane at the airport entrance to pick up the next passenger.”
The incident follows the provocative establishment of a so-called “Embassy of the Republic of Khalistan” at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. The gurdwara was once headed by slain Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India.
Banners and signs at the embassy site glorify Nijjar and promote the banned group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which continues to push its controversial referendum campaign.
Photographs of the Surrey “embassy” circulated online show signage declaring it the official mission of the fictitious Khalistan state. It was reported that these premises, ironically, benefited from C$150,000 in recent taxpayer-funded grants from the British Columbia government for accessibility upgrades — a move that has drawn sharp criticism from Indo-Canadian leaders.
Legal experts note that while wearing a blazer with slogans such as “Khalistan Air Force” is not illegal under U.S. free speech protections, it becomes a matter of national security if linked to the support or incitement of violent extremist activity.
The Khalistan movement, which seeks to carve out a separate Sikh homeland from India’s Punjab region, has a bloody history of violent extremism.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Punjab was scarred by militant insurgency, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians, police, and political leaders. The movement was also linked to the 1985 bombing of Kanishka – Air India Flight 182 – off the coast of Ireland, which killed 329 people, mostly Canadian citizens.
Significantly, USA’s Five Eyes partner agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has now acknowledged the extremist threat.
In June this year, the CSIS identified Canada-based Khalistani Extremists (CBKEs) as a persistent source of politically motivated violence. CSIS warned of ongoing involvement in financing and plotting violence abroad, marking the first time Canadian authorities explicitly linked the Khalistan campaign with extremist activity.
The emergence of Khalistan propaganda in the U.S. and Canada threatens to strain ties with India, which has consistently called on Western governments to curb the activities of extremist groups on their soil.
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