() – India has labelled Canada a “safe haven for terrorists” after suspending visas for Canadian citizens, as fallout grows from Ottawa’s accusation that New Delhi is potentially behind the killing of a Sikh separatist activist on its soil.
In a harsh statement to reporters, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that Canada should “be concerned about its international reputation” following the explosive allegations.
He added: “If you’re talking about reputation issues and reputational damage, if there’s any country that needs to look at this, I think it’s Canada and its growing reputation as a safe haven for terrorists, for extremists and for organized crime.”
His comments came after India suspended visa applications from Canadian citizens over what it said were “security threats” to diplomats in the country.
“The issue is the incitement to violence, the inaction of the Canadian authorities, the creation of an environment that disrupts the functioning of our High Commission and our consulates, that is what makes us temporarily suspend the issuance of visas or the provision of visa services,” Bagchi added.
Relations between the two countries plummeted this week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said India could be behind the June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist activist, who was shot dead by two masked men in Surrey, British Columbia.
India has vehemently denied the claims, calling them “absurd and motivated.” Bagchi said Canada has not provided “any specific information” to support the allegations.
On Thursday, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory to television networks asking them to refrain from “giving space to persons facing serious allegations, including terrorism or membership in proscribed organisations.”
The Indian government has long accused Canada of inaction in the face of what it sees as Sikh separatist extremism, which aims to create a separate homeland for Sikhs, to be known as Khalistan and include parts of the Indian state of Punjab.
Nijjar was an outspoken supporter of the creation of Khalistan. India considers calls for the creation of Khalistan a serious threat to national security.
Several groups associated with the idea of Khalistan are listed as “terrorist organisations” under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Nijjar’s name is on the UAPA’s terrorist list, and in 2020, he was accused by India’s National Investigation Agency of “attempting to radicalise the Sikh community across the world in favour of the creation of Khalistan”.
Several Sikh organisations abroad say the Indian government is falsely equating the movement with terrorism, and say they will continue to peacefully advocate for the creation of Khalistan while shedding light on what they say are years of human rights abuses faced by the community in India.
The Sikhs once had their own kingdom in Punjab, and the impetus for the creation of Khalistan dates back decades, to around the time India gained independence from its British colonial rulers in 1947.
When partition abruptly divided the former colony along religious lines — sending Muslims to the newly formed nation of Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to newly independent India — the split Punjab witnessed some of the worst violence.
Sikhs suffered greatly in the ensuing bloodshed, and the community felt mistreated in the new Hindu-majority nation, prompting some prominent leaders to advocate the creation of Khalistan. Violent clashes have erupted over the years between the movement’s followers and the Indian government, claiming many lives.
In the 1980s, Punjab witnessed a decade-long insurgency by some Khalistani militants, who committed a series of human rights abuses, including massacres of civilians, indiscriminate bombings and attacks on Hindus, according to Human Rights Watch.
In counterinsurgency operations, Indian security forces arbitrarily detained, tortured, executed and “disappeared” tens of thousands of Sikhs, the rights group said. The Indian government also enacted counterinsurgency laws that facilitated human rights violations and prevented security forces from being held accountable for their actions, it added.
In 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar — Sikhism’s holiest shrine — to kill Sikh separatists, in an operation that caused enormous anger in the Sikh community.
Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a new outbreak of violence in which more than 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed.
A year later, the violence spread to Canada, when Sikh separatists bombed an Air India plane taking off from Toronto airport, killing all 329 people on board, including many Canadians of Indian descent.
There is no insurgency in Punjab today and analysts say supporters of the Khalistan movement remain largely on the sidelines.
However, the movement still attracts some sympathy among some Sikhs in the global diaspora, particularly in Canada, Britain and Australia.
A small but influential number of these Sikhs support the idea of Khalistan, and referendums are held periodically to reach a consensus on establishing a separate homeland.
Nijjar’s death shocked and outraged many in Canada’s Sikh community, which numbers more than 770,000 and is one of the largest outside India.
Canadian police have not arrested anyone in connection with Nijjar’s killing. But in August, police said they were investigating three suspects and released a description of a possible getaway vehicle, asking for the public’s help.
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