The last 72 hours have been filled with hectic meetings full of tension, anger, resolute to fight back for a large segment of the Indian Australian community in Melbourne after threats of harm to family and property both in Australia and India from banned terrorist organisation Babber Khalsa.
Amid, allegedly disrespect shown to the Indian national flag in India’s national capital New Delhi during the “Farmers Tractor Parade” on 26th January (Indian Republic day) a group of Indian Australians decided to organise “Stand with India” flag-raising ceremony at Victoria State Parliament.
This poster was relased on 27 January morning by the organising group on multiple social media channels in Melboune.
Unsuspecting community members liked and wrote comments about joining the gathering however within few hours a lot of them started receiving threat messages allegedly from terrorist organisation Babber Khalsa.
The text of the message is in the Punjabi language, however, a rough translation was done by a community member shows the gravity of the matter.
Translation:
“Today Sikh Panth is going through very hard times. Indian govt attacked Darbar sahib on 6th June and they killed many innocents including kids and ladies. Being the leader Bhai Sukhdev Singh Ji Babbar on 23 march 1983 announced that we will get our freedom from India and will make our own country. Indian govt trying pushdown so that Punjab cant fight against them. The people who are on the side of the Indian govt. against Khalistan will be monitored. The rally which is on the side of govt (who is a murderer of innocents and bought three farmer bills again against farmers) should not have happened). Especially in Australia, the rally which is happening on 31 Jan 2021 by Modi bhagats and many more places and countries will be our target. The people who are supporting the killer Indian govt if anything happens to them then they will be responsible for their loss. For Khalsa everyone’s equal but if anyone supporting them, this is a warning to them.“
Nikhil Wadhwa* is a software engineer living in Melbourne for the last 16 years. He says, I come from Jalandhar in Punjab state and have grown up in the time of terrorism in Punjab.
“Never in my dreams I thought of getting a threat from terorist outfit ‘Babber Khalsa’ that too living in Australia.”
“It was a shock, I immediately locked all my social media accounts and informed family in India to be vigilant, said Mr. Wadhwa.
The Australia Today has talked to a number of people who have reported the matter to the authorities.
Below email is one of them shared with us.
Ravi Prakash* comes from Gujarat state in India and runs his own business.
He told The Australia Today, “I have filed a complaint with Australian Federal Police and I am writing to Victorian and Federal MP’s to inform them of this problem cropping in Australia.”
Parvinder Singh* has worked with a lot of community organisations as a social worker in the last 20 years after coming to Melbourne as an international student.
“If action is not taken by the Government today, it will be very bad for the future of Australia, as these extremists will not stop only with threats. Something needs to be done before anything happens,”
“Definitely we are worried about our family’s safety in India. Even though we have decided to register a formal complaint with Australian Federal Police, what’s most concerning is the presence of overseas terror groups in Australia. We have sought support from migrant help organisations and will be presenting a request to the Australian Government through our local MP”s to investigate the terror group supporters and sympathisers in Australia.” said Mr. Singh.
Mr. Wadhwa says, There is no place for such threats in Australian democratic society and these threats can’t scare us. We will continue to work as ambassadors of India and Australia to enhance the relationship between the two great nations.
Note: *All names have been changed to protect the identity as per the request from security agency.
