E-Paper
Canadian political leadership silent on ‘K’ word, Indian diplomats get security
Modi government has conveyed to Canada, UK and Germany that bilateral ties will be affected if India is targeted by Khalistan extremists in their countries.
Although the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has provided security escort to Indian diplomats and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) is concerned about the rising radicalization among Sikh separatists, the country’s political leadership is still playing vote bank politics and still to openly call out against the threats and violence by Khalistan extremists.
Barring generic and tepid statements by Canadian Foreign and Defence Ministers, even the Conservative leader of Opposition or the Prime Minister are still to condemn the extremists who are openly targeting Indian diplomats by name and photo. Although the total Indian diaspora in Canada is around 2.4 million, the 700,000 strong Sikh community, largely settled in Greater Toronto, Greater Vancouver and Edmonton, Calgary form a vote bank while the Indian diaspora remains divided at large. Such is the fear of Khalistan extremists that the moderate Sikh community in Canada does not utter a word against them and same is the case with the Indian diaspora.
Concerned at the call for protest rallies in Toronto and Vancouver, the RCMP and CSIS are constantly in touch with the Indian High Commission and Consulates in Canada and have provided escort and two officers to top diplomats in Toronto and Vancouver. The Sikh extremists led by SFJ convener G S Pannu, who holds a dual passport of Canada and US, are planning to protest against killing of terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver on June 19 with marches to the Indian missions in Toronto and Vancouver on July 8. The SFJ is also planning to hold a referendum in the Greater Toronto area on July 16 and a referendum in the Greater Vancouver area in September.
After the killing of Nijjar in Vancouver and Avtar Singh Khanda in UK in inter-gang warfare, Pannu currently is lying below the radar and is expected to surface before the protest rally on July 8. The rumor that Pannu had died in a road accident in the US on Wednesday was circulated through social media within India and has no credibility.
The sudden spurt in separatist movement in Canada, UK, US and Germany is due to rising insecurity among the proponents of Khalistan, who think that their comrade in arms have been targeted by the Indian security agencies in Pakistan, UIK and Vancouver.
Behind the scenes, it is the Pakistani deep state that is instigating and providing back-end operations to the Khalistan extremists in these western countries with Pak diplomats posted in Canada providing the spark to the Sikh radicals.
The Narendra Modi government has been blunt with Canada, UK, US and German government over Khalistan extremists and have clearly conveyed through the national security apparatus that the Sikh radicals are getting tacit support from the west as a leverage against India in future. While the US has taken the Indian demand of action against Sikh radicals seriously, the Canadian, UK, and German governments are still conspicuous by their silence over Khalistan terrorism.
