As the Indian government has accused Canada of not facilitating extradition of Khalistani extremists and protecting them instead as the diplomatic relations between both the countries have touched a new low over killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Former chief minister Amarinder Singh had handed a list of Khalistani operatives to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over five years ago that also had Nijjar on it.
Trudeau had visited Indian in February 2018 and paid obeisance at Golden Temple in Amritsar. The state government had pulled all stops to welcome Trudeau that time. However, Amarinder, during his meeting handed him a list of nine alleged to be Khalistani operatives in Canada. While the government then disclosed the names of five most wanted of Punjab Police, four names were held back and not disclosed to the media as they were not booked in any case but the government had important intelligence inputs on them.
Dinkar Gupta, who is NIA chief currently was the state intelligence head at that time. The government had stated that those on the list were either running or funding the pro-Khalistan terror modules. The government had also stated that the Government of India had also written to Canada earlier about Nijjar.
As per the government’s letter to Trudeau then, “Nijjar, who belonged to Phillaur was settled in Surrey in Canada, and was wanted in Ludhiana’s Shingar cinema blast that killed six people. Indian government had already alerted Canada in May 2016 about his anti-Indian activities. Punjab Intelligence agencies had stated that Nijjar, who had taken over operations of KTF was instigating Sikh youths to carry out terror attacks in Punjab. State’s intelligence agencies had been claiming that Nijjar was planning to arrange weapons from Pakistan but was unable to do so after Pathankot airbase terror attack on January 2, 2016. He also allegedly sourced 1000 Canadian Dollars from Canada in 2014 for raising terror module and purchasing weapons, trained four Sikh youth in AK-47 and sniper rifles firing in Mission Hills (BC) in December 2015.”
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Others on the state’s list included Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal, “who was sent from Canada to India for targeted killing in 2016.” While six of them were associated with International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), three were linked with Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
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They included ISYF activists Gurjeet Singh Cheema, Gurpreet Singh, Gurjinder Singh Pannu, Nijjar and Malkeet Singh. Later, when Nijjar was roped in by Sikhs for Justice for Referendum 2020 in April 2019, Amarinder had hit back at him and stated that he was on the list of wanted persons he had shared with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their meeting in Amritsar in February 2018. Amarinder had expressed concern over the Canadian government’s “covert and overt” support to the hardliners operating from its soil to create disturbance in India.
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In a statement, he had asked Trudeau not to “play with fire by allowing such elements to use Canadian territory to disrupt India’s peace and stability.”