A group of supporters of the Khalistan movement allegedly attacked the president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee in California on Sunday, reported PTI. While Manjit Singh GK suffered bruises, one of his associates has been hospitalised. The police have arrested three people in connection with the attack.

Singh said he was supposed to hold discussions with the Sikh community about the 550th birthday anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak to be commemorated in 2019. He was visiting the main Gurudwara in Yuba City when a group of 30-35 people supporting the “Khalistan 2020 referendum” attacked him. “I am hurt,” he told PTI over phone from California. “They pushed me and kicked me brutally. It was a brutal murderous attack.”

This is the second such attack on the Shiromani Akali Dal leader. He was attacked outside a TV studio in New York on Tuesday.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee General Secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa condemned the attack. “These people are respecting those who killed Sikhs and attacking those who are working for the goodwill of Sikhism”, he told the Hindustan Times.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbhir Singh Badal said that he had requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take up the matter with her American counterpart. “This attack has been done on behest of the Inter-Services Intelligence who are anti-India, against stability of Punjab and want to create a wedge between Sikhs,” he alleged, according to ANI.

Meanwhile, Sikhs For Justice – a group demanding justice for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims and supporting the Khalistan 2020 referendum – accused Singh and his supporters of “instigating violent attacks on pro-Khalistan activists” who were “peacefully protesting”. Legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said the group has also filed a complaint against Singh with the US Department of Justice for violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. “We will now ask US Immigration to take notice of illegal activities of Singh and make him inadmissible to the United States,” he told PTI.