India-Canada Row LIVE: Gurdwaras Were Turned into 'K-hubs', Says Activist in Canada; Arsh Dalla On Radar

“The question is how Nijjar arrived in Canada, who allowed him? Rumours say that it was Arsh Dalla… Police will never confirm that,” said Amrit Pal Brar, radio host and activist in Canada

“Khalistani groups are capable of buying small towns in Canada…Gurudwaras were turned into K-hubs,” Amrit Pal Brar, radio host and activist in Canada told CNN News18.

“We care about those countries and their relationship. Our relationship is rock solid with both of them. All of us need to make sure we come together as countries that take seriously sovereignty, security, and the potential of our relationship,” said US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti on India-Canada row.

After the National Investigation Agency (NIA) confiscated the properties of Canada-based ‘designated individual terrorist’ Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, it is learnt that the government has asked the investigative agencies to identify the properties of other terrorists wanted in India sitting abroad.

Sources privy to the matter said that the government has asked the agencies to identify the properties of the terrorists settled abroad.

The source also said that the government has asked the agencies to identify Khalistani terrorists settled in countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia and cancel their Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) so that they don’t come to India. READ MORE

Canada’s Deputy Army Chief Major General Peter Scott said, “I am fully aware of, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement. The government’s stance and the government request for India to participate in, and cooperate in the investigation. But, really, that has no impact on us here at the Indo-Pacific conference. We’re really here to build relationships from army to army, and we’ll let our governments deal with that issue, themselves.”

The Deputy Chief of the Canadian Army is heading the Canadian delegation at the Indo-Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who will address the UN General Assembly in New York tomorrow, may respond to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “credible allegations” over Indian agents’ involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Nijjar in June.

Of the approximately 250 gurdwaras in Canada, eight are controlled by Khalistani groups, a source from an Indian intelligence agency told News18 amid the India-Canada diplomatic crisis.

The groups are active in Surrey, British Columbia, Brampton and Abbotsford and in some areas in Toronto. “Going by their strength, there must be approximately 10,000 Sikhs supporting Khalistani ideology. Of these, 5,000 are hardcore. The rest are only sympathetic and support them under peer pressure,” the source told News18. READ MORE

Amid the diplomatic rift between India and Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has announced temporarily suspending issuance of visas to Canadian citizens in view of “security threats” faced by its high commission and consulates in Canada.

The relations between the two countries turned sour after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged ‘involvement of Indian agent’ in the killing of a Khalistani separatist on Canadian soil.

MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, while announcing the visa restrictions, said, “You are aware of the security threats being faced by our High Commission and consulates in Canada. These have disrupted their normal functioning. Accordingly, our High Commission and consulates are temporarily unable to process visa applications. We will be reviewing the situation on a regular basis.” READ MORE

Angry about the temporary suspension of India’s visa services, the Sikh community in Canada is blaming the PM Justin Trudeau-led government and Khalistani groups for the strain in bilateral ties, a top community leader from Vancouver told CNN-News18, on condition of anonymity.

“A majority of Indian Canadians visit India during the festive season and stay there for three-four months. They also take care of their farmlands during the period. The cancellation of visa will disturb the social fabric,” he said. “It will also stop our visits to the Golden Temple which will be very painful for devotees,” he added. READ MORE

A rally called by pro-Khalistani protesters outside the Indian Consulate in Vancouver failed on Monday with barely 25 people showing up for the demonstration, sources in Canada told News18.

The rally had been called for 12 noon on Monday outside the consulate to protest against India over the murder of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s has alleged “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of 45-year-old Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020. New Delhi angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case. READ MORE

The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, does not have intelligence inputs on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a top Indian government source told CNN-News18 amid the India-Canada diplomatic crisis.

In a blow to the bilateral ties between India and Canada, Trudeau recently accused India of being involved in the killing of Nijjar earlier this year. The Ministry of External Affairs said the claims made by Trudeau are “motivated and absurd”. READ MORE

Reacting to the India-Canada diplomatic row, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry on Monday (local time) said that terrorists have found safe haven in the North American country and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has this way of coming out with outrageous allegations.

While speaking exclusively with ANI, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister further added that he is “not surprised” by his comments as Trudeau comes out with “outrageous and substantiated allegations.”

“Some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada. The Canadian PM has this way of just coming out with some outrageous allegations without any supporting proof. The same thing they did for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie about saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country”, said Sri Lankan Foreign Minister.

After Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in British Columbia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents visited several Sikh leaders and warned them that their lives were also at risk, as per a report in The Intercept.

Pritpal Singh, a political activist who is a coordinator for the American Sikh Caucus Committee, told The Intercept that he and two other Sikh Americans in California received calls and visits from the FBI after Nijjar was killed.

Sukhman Dhami, co-director of Ensaaf, a California-based nonprofit group said Sikhs throughout the US have received police warnings about potential threats.

Canada-based pro-Khalistan hardliner Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was declared a ‘wanted terrorist’ by the Indian government and was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on the premises of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, of which he was the head, in the Punjabi-dominated Surrey city of Canada was among many of the Khalistani terrorists who are based out of India.

Officials admit to IANS like Nijjar, who was the Khalistan Tiger Force chief, several pro-Khalistan leaders are carrying out separatist activities from Canada, Britain and Australia, where a sizable Sikh diaspora is residing, besides Pakistan.

Among them, the prominent on the radar of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) are proscribed terrorist organisation, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), founded by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is now operating from Canada, and Lakhbir Singh Sandhu, alias Landa, and Harwinder Singh Sandhu, alias Rinda, both ISI-backed operatives promoting the terror activities of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) in India.

The US was a Five Eyes member country that provided some kind of corroborating intelligence that Canada used to firm up its assessment that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and Khalistan activist, was killed in a plot by the Indian government, according to a report in The New York Times.

The report, which is based on accounts from two allied officials, says the US, which is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing compact with Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, had no advance knowledge of the plot but provided Canada the “context”.

Ottawa developed the intelligence with the help of intercepts of communications of Indian diplomats in Canada.

Slain Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other pro-Khalistan elements in Canada have been reportedly building a local ‘pro-Khalistan brigade’. As per a report by Times Of India, these ‘pro-Khalistan’ elements have been sponsoring visas for gullible Punjab youths for medium-skilled jobs, making them ‘indebted’ to them.

Many of these ‘indebted’ youths — brought in to work as plumbers, truck drivers or do religious duties as sewadars, pathis and ragis in the 30-plus gurdwaras controlled by pro-Khalistan elements across Surrey, Brampton, Edmonton, etc — are sucked into the separatist movement and used for organising anti-India protests and conducting radical-religious congregations in Canada, TOI reported quoting Indian intelligence sources.

Punjab Police on Monday conducted raids on premises of the associates of Khalistani extremist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu, alias Landa, who is on the radar of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Ferozepur district, bordering Pakistan, officials said. Raids have been conducted at 48 places and many people have been detained.

Landa and Harwinder Singh Sandhu, alias Rinda, both ISI-backed operatives have been accused of promoting the terror activities of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) in India.

According to the NIA, both Pakistan-based Rinda and Linda are wanted in cases relating to commissioning of targeted killings, as well as targeting of law enforcement agencies in order to create an environment of terror in Punjab.

The NIA has alleged that Canada-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had planned to create a territory called the ‘democratic republic of Urduistan’ in an attempt to separate Kashmir from India. The National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) report states that Pannun’s primary agenda through the Sikh for Justice (SFJ) organisation is to divide India.

“Pannun aims to divide India along religious lines. He intends to influence the country’s Muslim population to establish a separate Muslim nation, which he wishes to name the ‘democratic republic of Urduistan. Furthermore, he is actively working to radicalise the people of Kashmir in order to potentially facilitate Kashmir’s separation from India,” the NIA’s latest report says.

The agency has claimed in its dossier that Pannun incited young individuals to engage in a secessionist movement and encouraged them to post provocative posters bearing pro-liberation slogans in Punjab.

The SGPC Monday expressed concern over the allegations levelled by Canada against India over the killing of a Khalistani leader, saying that “everything said by the prime minister in the Parliament of any country cannot be rejected easily”.

In a special resolution passed in the executive meeting presided over by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami, it was said that the statement given by the Prime Minister in the Parliament of any country is not understood as common, rather considered to be fact-based within the scope of the dignity of the concerned country’s constitution.

Everything said by the Prime Minister in the Parliament cannot be rejected easily. The truth of the allegations made by the Prime Minister of Canada against the Indian agencies should be brought to the light of the people through a sincere approach by both the countries by going beyond politics. If this case is suppressed only because of politics, it will be considered as injustice to human rights, it said.

The Indian Community in Canada is concerned over the recent strain in relations between the two countries following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’ allegations regarding the Indian government’s involvement in the fatal shooting of Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

Senior Canadian Journalist Harleem Sadia said that the Indian community has concerns which are very genuine. She said common people are now finding it difficult to travel to India and Canada. It is difficult for people who lead normal lives, have regular jobs.

Canadian citizen of Indian origin Gurjant Singh said that being a Sikh, both India and Canada are extremely important to him and the recent tensions deeply concern him. Gurjant Singh feels the issue should be resolved through dialogue.