Seattle holds a Khalistan Referendum vote

Who: Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the group behind the Khalistan Referendum, and its general counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who addressed the gathering. India has banned SFJ and has designated Pannun a "terrorist".

What: On Sunday, March 22, 2026, SFJ ran a Khalistan Referendum vote at City Hall Park in downtown Seattle from 9 am to 5 pm. A flag-hoisting was held the day before at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Renton. SFJ reported about 27,000 votes. That figure is the organisers' own, and we found no independent count. The vote is unofficial and non-binding. It is one of a series of diaspora votes SFJ has held since London on October 31, 2021, in cities that include Geneva, Toronto, Brampton, Melbourne, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bloom Pakistan reported that Pannun, in a statement linked to the event, signalled the possibility of an "armed struggle" against India. We found no full text of his remarks, and the report does not quote them in full.

Where: Seattle, Washington, with the flag-hoisting at the Renton gurdwara.

Why it mattered: The referendum series is SFJ's way of pressing for a vote on independence for Punjab from India, which the Indian government treats as secessionist. Each round is counted by SFJ itself, so turnout claims cannot be checked against an official roll. The reported remark on armed struggle stood out because the series presents itself as a ballot-based campaign. SFJ and Pannun are also at the centre of the case in which Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty to a plot to kill Pannun in New York, which gives the group a place in the wider story of Sikh activists abroad and the threats against them.