India

India and Canada have engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as part of an intensifying row over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, on Canadian soil.

The 45-year-old came to Canada as a refugee decades ago and had since became a Canadian citizen. He was an ardent advocate of establishing a sovereign state of Khalistan, a Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab region.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims that Indian agents were involved in the murder of Nijjar. India dismissed the allegations as “absurd.” However, Indian officials view Nijjar as a terrorist, a member of the banned Khalistan Commando Force, whom India links to targeted killings of various political and religious figures.

It is in Canada thanks to Justin and Jagmeet.

About 75 people rallied outside the Consul General of India in downtown Vancouver Monday to protest the reported involvement of the Indian government in killing Canadian citizen and Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar was a leader in the fight for the creation of a Sikh state in India called Khalistan. He was gunned down three months ago outside of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where he was president. The 45-year-old was proclaimed a terrorist by India in 2020.

India isn’t backing down on efforts to pressure, track and capture Sikh separatists in Canada in the face of a high-stakes diplomatic showdown between the governments of prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Narendra Modi.

After Canada’s assertion that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian state may have ordered the June killing of Surrey, B.C.’s Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an outspoken advocate of Sikh independence, law enforcement in India is instead ramping up the fight against individuals it considers to be terrorists, gangsters and fugitives from justice in this country.

Surely now, even the Trudeau Liberals will start to take national security seriously. If indeed the Indian government was behind the killing of a Canadian citizen, it proves yet again that the idea that Canada is much too enlightened to concern itself with something as unsophisticated as security is nothing but a fantasy.

Universal health care, a whole pile of “humility and audacity” and all the “honest broker” nonsense the Liberals can muster won’t stop foreign adversaries from harassing, kidnapping or murdering Canadians.

With his spectacles and sombre grey suit, Pavan Kumar Rai looks every inch the professional senior Indian civil servant.

His low-key, bureaucratic manner fits perfectly with the anodyne name of his employer: the Research and Analysis Wing.

Yet Mr Rai and his organisation were thrust into the spotlight this week, after explosive allegations from Justin Trudeau that India assassinated Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

It is hard to imagine any world leader wanting to share the foreign policy swamp in which the beleaguered Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, currently finds himself.

Having spent the past months fighting accusations that he acted too slowly to address serious allegations that China attempted to meddle in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections, Trudeau’s has landed in a potentially costly diplomatic dog fight with the world’s most populous democracy, India, at exactly the time he needs Delhi the most.

Put simply, the timing couldn’t be worse.

A Canadian Sikh group has called on its members to protest outside the Indian diplomatic missions of main Canadian cities on Monday, a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi’s involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.

Trudeau said last week Canada was pursuing “credible allegations” that Indian government agents may be linked to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a high Sikh population.

Two groups in the Canadian Sikh diaspora are calling for Canada’s political parties to “present a united front” on India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a “potential link” between the shooting death of a local leader and the Indian government.

In a joint statement, the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council say that “Canadian parties of all stripes must be unequivocally clear” about their opposition to possible foreign interference relating to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

The Liberals and NDP already do present a united front against India, that’s the problem.

How about asking for a united front against foreign terrorists using Canada as a safe haven? Or is that racist?

Gangland Canada: Trudeau’s backyard global hub of 8 Indian crime lords

The killing of Sukhdool Singh Gill aka Sukha Duneke in Winnipeg, Canada, on Wednesday has thrown the spotlight on the global operations of notorious Indian criminal gangs.

Duneke, who was allegedly associated with the infamous Bambiha gang, was wanted in multiple cases in India, including for murder, extortion, and attempt to murder.

This week in New York, as he listened to questions from reporters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s reliable smile began to fade.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all the questions were about India and the shocking allegation made by Mr Trudeau earlier in the week: there was credible evidence the Indian government had participated in the extrajudicial killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, a Sikh activist whom India has accused of terrorism.

Delhi has denied having anything to do with the murder.