Pahalgam Hindu massacre whitewashed by US based Khalistani separatist
United States 
26 April, 2025
Case Summary
In an interview published, by the Pakistani propaganda YouTube channel Azaad Siasat, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a prominent Khalistani terrorist, made a series of provocative and unfounded claims regarding the Pahalgam Hindu massacre. He claimed that Indian agencies, not Pakistan, were responsible for the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which resulted in the deaths of 24 Hindus. He gave a clean chit to Islamic terrorists and stated that the attack was a politically motivated move designed to benefit India's ruling dispensation for the upcoming elections. Pannu, a US-based terrorist, leads the pro-Khalistani group Sikhs for Justice and has been at the forefront of promoting separatist ideologies and inciting violence against India. His rhetoric undermined India’s sovereignty and sought to destabilise relations between India and Pakistan. These claims have been widely condemned as baseless and inflammatory, intended to further Pannu’s separatist agenda while exacerbating tensions in the region. In a horrific act of terror on April 22, 2025, in the Baisaran Valley of Pahalgam, Anantnag district, Jammu and Kashmir, Islamic terrorists systematically identified and targeted Hindu victims. The terrorists demanded names and religious identities, inspected ID cards, coerced tourists to recite the Kalma, and even forcibly pulled down their pants to check for circumcision—all to single out non-Muslims. Once identified, the Hindus were shot at point-blank range. The attack, carried out by operatives of The Resistance Force, a proxy of the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed the lives of 24 Hindus and left 16 others critically injured.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution. Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution/ethnic cleansing refers to the act of denying or minimizing the fact of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. This often involves denying the scale, mechanisms, religious intent, or even the occurrence of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. Hate speech of this kind involves the dissemination of falsehoods that deny or distort established historical facts or mock the suffering of Hindus by saying that they deserved the persecution, motivated by Hinduphobia. Denying such atrocities is not only about the denial of facts or rewriting/revising history, but it also delegitimises the religiously motivated persecution of Hindus, the religious hate/motivation/animosity that led to the persecution, and dehumanises Hindus as a religious group. Such denial of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus not only denies the suffering but also paves the way for future/present atrocities and hate speech, inciting prejudice and violence against Hindus. It also provides a justification for violence by delinking religious animosity from religiously motivated crimes committed against Hindus. Since such denial and/or mocking of genocide/ethnic cleansing/atrocities motivated by religious animosity leads to present and future ramifications of creating more hate speech, violence, dehumanisation and delegitimisation, it would be considered hate speech under this category. The case is classified as a hate crime because it involves the denial and minimisation of the religiously motivated profiling and targeted killing of Hindus during the Pahalgam terror attack. The terrorists explicitly identified their victims based on religion, demanding they recite the Kalma and checking for circumcision to confirm whether the individuals were Muslim or Hindu. Survivor testimonies and forensic reports confirm that victims’ trousers were forcibly pulled down or unzipped as part of this brutal religious verification, and those found to be Hindus were executed on the spot. This chilling modus operandi leaves no ambiguity about the religious hate that motivated the massacre. By attempting to whitewash the religiously charged nature of the attack, Pannu’s statements constitute a deliberate act of genocide denial and minimisation of persecution. He ignored the clear religious targeting of Hindus and instead falsely accused Indian agencies of orchestrating the massacre for political gain, despite the attack being linked to Pakistan. Such denial distorts the reality of the atrocities and delegitimises the suffering of the Hindu victims and their families. In doing so, Pannu not only absolved Pakistan and Islamic terrorists of responsibility but also maliciously shifted blame to India and its ruling government, thereby enabling impunity for religious terrorism against Hindus. This deliberate misrepresentation and dissemination of falsehoods fall squarely within the framework of hate speech. It dehumanises Hindus by denying the targeted nature of their suffering and provides ideological cover for those who commit or justify such violence. Pannu’s statements align with a broader pattern of anti-Hindu prejudice and subversion, wherein religiously motivated crimes against Hindus are denied, rationalised, or erased from public discourse. By deflecting accountability from Islamist perpetrators and Pakistan, despite clear evidence, his remarks act as both justification and incitement for further violence and hate against Hindus. It is important to mention here that, while Pannu’s statement might seem targeted at the Indian government, however, it is also reflective of the broader hostility that Khalistani separatists harbour against Hindus. Khalistani separatists view India as a Hindu collectivity and hold specific animosity towards Hindu identity and faith. In fact, the very basis of their demands for a separate country carved out of India is that India is a Hindu collectivity, and the Sikh religious identity is separate from it, much like Islam. Therefore, remarks that attack India, framed as opposition to its government, also serve to undermine the Hindu identity of the country. This anti-India rhetoric is deeply tied to anti-Hindu sentiments, making it more than just political dissent—it's an expression of hate against Hindus and their identity, which can be classified as a hate crime.
Case Status
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Sikh Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
