SFJ operative held by Delhi Police for pro-Khalistan graffiti

NEW DELHI: An operative of the secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), who operated like a sleeper cell, has been arrested by Delhi Police‘s special cell for painting pro-Khalistani graffiti at several locations in Delhi and Haryana throughout the year.

pro-Khalistan graffiti

Malak Singh (38) from Kurukshetra, police said, was acting on the instructions of SFJ chief and terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.His last graffiti was on a flyover in north Delhi in September.
Special commissioner of police HGS Dhaliwal said Malak was tracked down after extensive human and technical surveillance for two months. “The arrest has helped avert a repeat of the incident on a much larger scale on the day of the World Cup final on November 19 as Malak was tasked by Pannun to paint pro-Khalistan slogans at different venues,” Dhaliwal said. An analysis of his mobile phones has revealed that he was directed to paint pro-Khalistan slogans at Delhi airport and other government buildings on November 19 in the aftermath of a video released by Pannun, where he threatened a repeat of the AI bombing of 1985.
Malak was in touch with Pannun on the chat app Signal and was promised a hefty payment in dollars and a US visa in lieu of completing the tasks.
The special cell started tracking the suspect after pro-Khalistan graffiti appeared under and over the Yudhisthir Setu in Kashmere Gate on September 27.
“Within hours, a video of the act appeared on the internet and SFJ claimed responsibility. Pannun claimed in the video that Khalistani Sikhs from Canada had reached Delhi to target Parliament to avenge the killing of terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” additional commissioner Pramod Singh Kushwaha said.
An FIR was filed and three teams, comprising inspectors Man Singh, Mandeep and Jaibir, started tracking Malak.
Footage from over two dozen CCTV cameras was analysed and a person was spotted near the graffiti. Surveillance showed the suspect had boarded a Punjab-bound bus and disembarked at Pipli, Kurukshetra. CCTV footage of Pipli was checked, but he could not be traced. Informers were deployed in Kurukshetra. Finally, SI Naveen identified Malak.
Malak had been inclined towards the Khalistani ideology as a teenager. “During the farmers’ agitation in 2020, he came to the Singhu border, where he came met sympathisers of SFJ and Khalistan,” Dhaliwal said. Having won Pannun’s trust, Malak wrote graffiti and returned to his village to lie low before his next act, an investigator said.

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