With the Referendum 2020, a pro-Khalistan event at Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday, failing to draw an anti-India support, the Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said it has exposed the total lack of ground support for the pro-Khalistan campaign.

The CM said the entire affair was a futile exercise by a sham organisation, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), to create trouble in India, particularly Punjab.

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“The SJF is just a group of fringe elements, playing into the hands of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to divide India, but they have failed, and will continue to fail in their nefarious designs,” said Amarinder.

The CM said the presence of Pakistani politicians at the rally confirms that it was out and out an ISI plot, which fell through, just as their attempts to create trouble in India have been failing all these years, he added.

Reacting to the UK rally, Amarinder said that, as expected, it turned out to be a damp squib, participated by a handful of elements. He, however, felt the UK government should have put its foot down and not allowed its soil to be used to propagate anti-India campaign.

Further castigating the UK government, Amarinder said that by allowing the protesters to use Trafalgar Square, instead of the usual Hyde Park that’s generally used for such purposes, it had shown its total complacency in the issue.

“The entire referendum business is nothing but a money-making racket of SFJ, with no takers for the so-called campaign either in India, or even outside, as is evident from the poor show at the rally,” he said.

There was virtually zero  local support for the rally and whatever little support they had managed to garner was of similar fringe elements from various countries, said the CM.

The presence of Pakistani leaders, including Nazir Ahmed who openly spoke of dividing India and splitting Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland from it, made it clear that the rally was a game plan of the ISI — a fact further endorsed by the presence of separatist Kashmiris living in the UK, said the CM.

Some of these Kashmiris were forced to wear turbans to make them look like Sikhs, said the CM, citing ground reports. And the handful of Sikhs around had evidently been forced to come, he added.

Describing the SFJ fringe elements as mere social media tigers, who are trying to create a hype even when they have no support, both in India and abroad, the CM said the Sikhs were a patriotic community who have always stood for the unity and integrity of the country.

As many as 90,000 Sikhs serving in the Indian army are defending the country’s borders, he pointed out, adding that SFJ could never succeed in misleading the community into falling for their selfish designs.

The CM warned the SFJ and all other such anti-India forces to stay out of the country and refrain from any attempt to foment trouble in Punjab, or any other part of India.

Their efforts will backfire on them, he said, adding that his government would deal with such elements with an iron hand. Nobody would be allowed to disturb the peace and the communal harmony in the state, Amarinder declared.