A prominent Indo-Canadian community member has voiced deep concern over the “ecosystem” in Canada that has enabled Khalistan extremists to use violence, threaten and bully those opposing their “nefarious agendas”.

Amidst the diplomatic standoff between Canada and India over the killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist in Surrey in British Columbia province in June, he cautioned that political appeasement for short-term gains is not in the interest of Canada’s future.

“It is very concerning for us as a country, as Canadiansâ€æ the direction which we as a country are taking in the sense of giving freedom of expression, which is our charter right, to people who don’t believe in that same freedom of expression for others. Peace-loving Canadians do not believe in (a) certain ideology which is very extreme, which does not belong to Canada,” National Convener, Canada India Foundation, Ritesh Malik, told PTI in an exclusive interview here.

Referring to Khalistan extremists in Canada, Malik said these people “create differences in society and disturb communal harmony. They work with a nefarious agenda and are derailing relationships between the two countries,” he said.

“Freedom of expression should be for everyone. We have unfortunately created that kind of ecosystem in Canada where these people are very vocal, very violent, very aggressive, and they don’t let anybody…. come out against them. They will bully, they will threaten, they will use every possible illegal means… to counter any sanity,” he said, adding that Sikhs across the US, Canada and the UK have come out and said that they don’t believe or endorse the Khalistan ideology.

“These (are big issues) that worry us as Canadians, in the long-term interest of Canada. We feel worried about the future of our children, about the rifts between communities,” he said, adding that leaders in government and officials in policy and advocacy should take up those issues for the larger interest of Canada.

India and Canada are embroiled in a diplomatic standoff following allegations by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Canadian Parliament last month that “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing” of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil on June 18 in British Columbia, a charge angrily rejected by New Delhi as “absurd” and “motivated”.

Malik referred to the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985 and said people and families of victims to date feel they have not got justice.

The Montreal-Delhi Air India ‘Kanishka’ Flight 182 exploded 45 minutes before it was to have landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board, most of them Canadians of Indian descent.

The bombing was blamed on Sikh militants in retaliation to the ‘Operation Blue Star’ to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in 1984.

“As a Canadian, I have no hesitation in admitting that we haven’t been able to call out the ideology and people who were responsible for that. We’ve seen them flourish. We’ve seen them grow, that ideology has grown, got beyond control. People have suffered. Within (the) Sikh community also, there are people who’ve suffered because of this ideology. They have not got justice for over 40 years now,” he said.

“This ideology has been flourishing and growing, with whatever patronage or whatever support. That is not Sikh ideology. That is not what Sikh people believe in,” he said.

He questioned what prompted Prime Minister Trudeau to conclude within four months in Nijjar’s case and noted that there are diplomatic ways for countries to deal with issues behind closed doors.

“It looks to us, as Canadians, it’s more like appeasement politics or a political move than anything else,” he said, adding that the issue should have been dealt with in a different way to ensure the already strained relationship between the two countries due to the matters left unresolved for decades now, is not further spoilt.

Malik added that Canada has been facing challenges, including economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living. “We need countries like India, partners like India,” whose economies are growing, he said. “It is in our interest as Canada, and as Canadians, to work closely with countries like India, and if there are issues, they need to be resolved in a way that it does not hamper Canadians’ chances to get economic benefit from opportunities which India presents today,” he added.

Malik underscored the importance of resolving issues between the two countries sincerely, “leaving aside short-term gains for votes, appeasement.”

“Both these countries have a great future. People on both sides are very progressive. They want the relationship to flourish, they want exchanges to take place, students to come here, people come here to set up businesses, people to go (to India) to explore opportunities,” he said. He added that it is important to resolve the issues, not let them escalate and to “nip them in the bud”.

Source: India Today

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Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of playing a role in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead in June in British Columbia state.

What is the Khalistan movement?

Khalistan is the name of the proposed state envisioned by some Sikhs, incorporating the Indian state of Punjab as well as other Punjabi-speaking areas of northern India to establish a Sikh nation.

The ethno-religious liberation movement gained traction in the 1970s and early 80s in India. It later died down but has developed momentum among the Sikh diaspora in recent years.

What would Khalistan look like?

There is division among supporters of Khalistan on the boundaries of a sovereign Sikh state, but most agree that it would encompass the state of Punjab in India.

The historical Punjab region is located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and includes modern-day eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. In India, it includes cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Jalandhar; and Lahore, Faisalabad, Nankana Sahib, Rawalpindi and Multan in Pakistan.

Some Khalistan supporters have called for the incorporation of the Pakistani side of Punjab, while other groups argue that some areas of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, states surrounding India’s Punjab, should also form part of the proposed nation.

How many Sikhs are there in India today?

According to the 2011 Indian census, the last when it was held, there are about 20.8 million Sikhs, making up 1.7 percent of the country’s population.

The majority of Sikhs, about 16 million at the time of the census, live in the northern state of Punjab where they make up about 58 percent of the state’s population.

What is the history of the Khalistan movement?

The notion of Khalistan is rooted in Sikhism, a faith that arose during the 15th century when northern India was under Mughal rule.

Led by Guru Gobind Singh, the faith was recast in 1699 under Khalsa, a word derived from Arabic meaning pure, to incorporate a political vision to protect Sikhs and other religions from religious persecution and to establish Sikh rule.

Following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the Punjabi Suba movement emerged which called for the establishment of a Punjabi-speaking autonomous Sikh state.

In 1952, the then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared he would suppress the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state, leading to divisions between Sikhs and Hindus.

Ultimately, in 1966, the state of Punjab was created with Chandigarh as its capital.

In the 1970s and 80s, following for the Khalistan movement re-emerged among Sikhs in India and the diaspora. Spurred by the Sikh rebel leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the movement became an armed rebellion.

The rebellion lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by a violent crackdown by the Indian government, in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site, in Amritsar, Punjab to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there. The operation killed about 400 people, according to official Indian government figures, but Sikh groups say thousands were killed.

The dead included Bhindranwale, whom the Indian government accused of leading the armed rebellion.

On October 31, 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had ordered the raid on the temple, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots, in which Hindu mobs went from house to house across northern India, particularly New Delhi, pulling Sikhs from their homes, hacking many to death and burning others alive.

The following year, on June 23, 1985, a bomb exploded on Air India Flight 182 over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board.

An investigation into the bombing revealed that it was orchestrated by Canadian-based Sikh fighters as revenge for the Golden Temple operation.

Where does the Khalistan movement stand today?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has intensified the pursuit of Sikh separatists and arrested dozens of leaders from various outfits allegedly linked to the movement.

Hartosh Bal, executive editor of The Caravan magazine in India, told Al Jazeera the Sikh separatist movement has been non-existent for decades in India.

“The Khalistan movement has a long history, and during the 1980s, there was a violent military movement on Indian soil. But ever since – at least in India, in the state of Punjab, where the Sikhs are the majority – the Khalistan movement has been virtually non-existent, enjoys no political support and goes up and down depending on the attention the Indian government pays to it,” Bal said.

“But the Modi government has consistently hyped up the Khalistani threat to India. I think, again, because it suits them domestically to talk about security threats to the Indian nation, rather than the actual measure of threat on the ground from the movement.”

The Khalistan movement has seen some support in diaspora Sikh communities, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

Where are the largest Sikh diaspora populations?

There are an estimated 26 million Sikhs around the world, according to the London School of Economics (LSE). Canada has the largest Sikh community outside India, with about 770,000 people having reported their religion as Sikh in the 2021 census.

According to the 2021 census in Egland and Wales, about 524,000 Sikhs are living in both countries. About 210,000 live in Australia, according to its 2021 census.

While the US census does not record religion, it is estimated that there are anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 Sikhs in the country.

In the past three years, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has organised unofficial referendums on the establishment of Khalistan in a number of countries. In Australia the vote, held in January, led to clashes between pro-Khalistan and Hindu supporters.

India has requested that Canada, Australia and the UK take legal action against Sikh activists, especially in Canada where Sikhs account for nearly 2 percent of the country’s population.

Following the arrest of Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old separatist leader who had revived calls for Khalistan, protesters in London pulled down the Indian flag from the high commission and smashed the windows of the building.

New Delhi also accused Khalistan supporters of attacking India’s High Commission in Ottawa and its other offices earlier this year, as well as of vandalising Hindu temples.

Which prominent Khalistan activists have been killed recently?

Hardeep Singh Nijjar

On June 18, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh gurdwara in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population, three years after India had designated him a “terrorist”.

Nijjar supported the demand for a Sikh homeland and was reportedly organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of his death.

Nijjar was born in 1977 in Punjab’s Jalandhar district and he moved to Canada in 1997. He was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh separatist group, according to India’s counterterrorism National Investigation Agency.

New Delhi has listed BKI as a “terrorist organisation” and says it is funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, a charge Islamabad denies.

Avtar Singh Khanda

In June, Avtar Singh Khanda, 35, the alleged head of the Khalistan Liberation Force and aide to Amritpal Singh, died in the UK, following a diagnosis of terminal cancer. But the circumstances of his death were described as “mysterious”, with some attributing his demise to poisoning.

His funeral was attended by thousands. However, his mother and sister living in India were denied visas to attend the funeral by the UK Home Office.

Paramjit Singh Panjwar

Paramjit Singh Panjwar, 63, was the alleged head of the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), a Sikh Khalistani armed organisation operating in Punjab.

Panjwar was gunned down in Lahore, Pakistan by two unidentified gunmen in May this year.

Panjwar played a significant role in the Sikh rebellion in India during the 1980s and 90s. He was known for his involvement in numerous acts of political violence, with the Indian government making extensive efforts to capture him.

Harmeet Singh

In January 2020, the alleged leader of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), Harmeet Singh 38, was killed near Lahore, Pakistan.

He was succeeded by Avtar Singh Khanda, who took over as the KLF leader in 2020, according to reports. Singh was accused of murders in India and training fighters for the Khalistan movement.

How is the row affecting Canada-India relations?

Following Trudeau’s claims that India had a role in the killing of Nijjar, tensions between Canada and India have escalated.

India suspended issuing visas to Canadian citizens amid the escalation, citing “security threats” disrupting work at its missions in Canada. Also, in a tit-for-tat move, India expelled one of the top Canadian diplomats last week after Canada’s foreign minister expelled Pavan Kumar Rai, the most senior member of India’s foreign intelligence agency operating in Canada.

Source: Al Jazeera

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