Canadian officers and the Royal Canadian Mounted police are investigating alleged “threats” towards Air India after a separatist chief warned Sikhs towards flying with the airline on 19 November.

The US-based activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun posted a video final week through which he referred to as for a boycott of India’s flagship service.

“We are asking the Sikh people not to fly via Air India on November 19. There will be a global blockade. On November 19, don’t travel by Air India or your life will be in danger,” he mentioned within the video, a mixture of Punjabi and English.

The controversial video marks newest menace to diplomatic relations between India and Canada, which have been strained since September when the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, alleged there was credible evidence linking India to the assassination of a Canadian Sikh leader in British Columbia.

The Canadian transport minister, Pablo Rodriguez, wrote in a social media post that his authorities took threats to aviation “extremely seriously”, including that officers had been “investigating recent threats circulating online”.

The RCMP mentioned it was working with its home and worldwide companions as a part of an investigation into “the threat against Air India flights”.

Pannun denied his feedback amounted to a menace towards India’s nationwide airline.

“The video clearly states I’m asking the global Sikh community to boycott Air India and instead Sikhs should fly Air Canada and British Airways,” he mentioned. “Where is the threat? There is none.”

But the decision to boycott Air India flights from Canada has revived recollections of the 1985 Air India bombing, which was orchestrated by Sikh extremists. Three hundred and twenty-nine folks died when Air India flight 182 from Montreal exploded off the coast of Ireland. It was on account of cease over at Heathrow earlier than happening to Delhi and ultimately Mumbai.

The victims included 280 Canadians and 86 youngsters, and the attackis nonetheless the worst act of mass homicide in Canadian historical past. A second bomb focusing on one other airplane killed two baggage handlers after it detonated at Tokyo’s Narita airport earlier than it was loaded on to an Air India airplane.

In the years that adopted, Canadian officers obtained vital criticism for ignoring or downplaying threats.

Pannun serves because the chief authorized counsel for the US-based group Sikhs for Justice, which organizes unofficial referendums on creating an independent Sikh state. India banned the group in 2019, calling it an illegal affiliation. Indian officers have additionally labeled Pannun a terrorist and he faces 22 prison fees in India, together with three counts of sedition. But Interpol has twice rejected India’s efforts to have a Red Notice issued for Pannun.

“RCMP has every right to investigate a terror threat. And if they consider calls for boycott an act of civil disobedience, if that is terror, then so be it, let them investigate,” he mentioned.

“But Sikhs today are facing genocide and econocide of the Punjab. We are simply asking Sikhs not to make the decision to direct their money towards countries like India.”

Pannun suggests the row over his feedback was a part of a disinformation marketing campaign by Indian officers in Canada.

“I would ask: who would peddle this as a threat? Who benefits by accusing me?” he mentioned. “We have never invited or provoked violence. We are fighting Indian bullets with the ballot.”

This shouldn’t be the primary time Pannun’s feedback have elicited controversy. After Trudeau told Canada’s parliament that there have been “credible allegations” that India was concerned within the killing of a Sikh chief in Canada, Pannun posted a video warning Indian Canadian Hindus “to leave Canada” and “go to India”. He prompt they had been disloyal to Canada – feedback denounced by the leaders of all political events. That video has since been deleted.