India’s anti-terror company has filed a case towards a Sikh separatist chief for threatening to not let flag service Air India function wherever on this planet, whereas warning its passengers of hazard to their lives.

The company stated safety forces had been on alert after the threats by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who acts as normal counsel of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a gaggle campaigning to ascertain an impartial Sikh homeland referred to as Khalistan carved out of India.

The case towards Pannun has been registered beneath numerous provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and beneath sections of the Indian Penal Code, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) stated in an announcement on Monday.

“Pannun threatened that Air India would not be allowed to operate in the world … in his video messages, released on Nov. 4,” it stated, including that he had urged Sikhs to not journey on Air India flights from Sunday, “claiming a threat to their lives”.

Reuters has not independently verified the video messages, which had been broadly shared on social media this month.

Pannun’s Sikhs for Justice group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark despatched to an electronic mail handle listed on its web site. Air India didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

India banned the SFJ as an “unlawful association” in 2019 and listed Pannun as an “individual terrorist” in 2020.

Pannun is a resident of the United States, the NIA stated that 12 months. Media have stated he has twin citizenship of the United States and Canada. The SFJ has workplaces in Britain, Canada and the United States, it says on its web site.

The threats come as Canadian companies examine “credible” allegations linking Indian authorities brokers to the June killing there of a Sikh separatist chief, which frayed ties between the 2 nations. India has rejected Canada’s suspicions.

In the wake of the threats, investigations have been launched in Canada, India and another nations the place the airline, owned by the Tata Group conglomerate, operates, the NIA stated in its assertion.

Pannun has additionally beforehand threatened to disrupt railways and thermal energy vegetation in India, the company stated.

Interpol has rejected two requests by India to situation a crimson nook discover towards Pannun, the Indian Express newspaper stated in October final 12 months.

Air India has beforehand been focused by Sikh militants, who had been blamed for a bombing in 1985 of its Boeing 747 plane flying from Canada to India that killed all 329 folks aboard off the Irish coast.

The demand for Khalistan has resurfaced many occasions, though it now has little assist in India, which sees the motion as a safety menace.

A violent insurgency within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties by Sikh militants paralysed the northern state of Punjab, the place Sikhs are a majority, for greater than a decade. (Reporting by Shivam Patel; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)