Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh lashes out at Canada for continued support to Khalistani Movement, says 'agencies failed to act'

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh lambasted the Canadian government for its support to the Khalistani movement. He warned that Canada's failure to check anti-India activities on it would be detrimental to its own security and interests in the long run.

The Cheif Minister cited the findings of the John Major Commission into the 1985 Kanishka bombing as a clear endorsement of Canada’s failure to act against the Khalistanis operating from its soil. He added that by allowing the conspirators of the `mass murder’, the Canadian government had exposed its true intent, making it more than apparent that Canada had been extending its support to Khalistanis despite New Delhi’s protestations.

Pointing out that he himself had been raising the issue with the Canadian government, Chief Minister noted that he had in fact given a list of wanted terrorists in Canada to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the latter’s India visit last year. The lack of response from their government so far has exposed their intent, he said.

The Commission report has, in its report, itemized the systemic biases of investigative agencies, to point out that:

“Despite the principal conspirators being put under surveillance well before the bombing, their conversations recorded, their acquisition and testing of explosives witnessed by state agents, and ample and repeated warnings that they intended to bomb a specific flight, Canadian agencies failed to act at each stage, and at a scale that cannot be explained away as mere ‘errors’, but that appear to have the taint of intentional negligence, if not collusion.”

READ: Khalistani Terrorist And Aide Of Hafiz Saeed In Kartarpur Panel; India May Halt The Next Meeting

Punjab CM Amarinder had handed over a list of nine ‘A’ category Canada-based terror operatives of Indian origin, including members of Khalistan Tiger Force, International Sikh Youth Federation and Babbar Khalsa International, to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on February 21 last year during his visit to Amritsar. Canadian PM was informed that Canadian soil was being misused by Khalistani activists to finance terror activities in India from Canada. But, except in one or two cases, the Canadian government had failed to take any action against any of those persons. 

The Chief Minister further cited reports of the 2018 Public Report released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to express concern over the fact that anti-India threat-related activities had been on the rise within Canada.

READ: Canada Lists Khalistani Extremism As 'security Threat' For First Time

A large number of Sikh extremists based in Canada have links in Pakistan and they work on the behest of Pakistan's Inter-services Intelligence (ISI). While Babbar Khalsa International, also known as Babbar Khalsa, is a Sikh militant organisation now based in Lahore, Pakistan, and reportedly operates in Canada and Europe. The International Sikh Youth Federation is a proscribed organisation that aims to establish an independent homeland for the Sikhs of India in Khalistan.

Captain Amarinder urged the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to take serious cognizance of these reports/disclosures to mount global pressure on Canada to put an end to the use of its soil to unleash terror against India.

He also expressed concern over the manipulation, and disinformation being spread, on social media to influence the young and vulnerable sections of the Sikh community against India.