India has accused Canada of providing a safe place for terrorists after Canada stopped issuing visas to its citizens. This comes after Canada blamed India for the killing of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian land.
India’s spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, told reporters that Canada should be concerned about its reputation after making serious accusations.
He said that if we talk about Canada’s reputation being affected, it is getting known as a country where terrorists, extremists, and organized crime feel safe.
He made comments after India stopped accepting visa applications from Canadians because they believe there are security dangers towards their diplomats in Canada.
“The problem is with promoting violence, lack of action from Canadian authorities, and creating a disruptive environment for our high commission and consulates. This is the reason why we are temporarily stopping the issuance of visas or providing visa services,” Bagchi explained.
The relationship between the two countries got worse this week. The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said that India might be responsible for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. Nijjar was a Sikh separatist activist who was shot by two masked men in Surrey, British Columbia.
India strongly denies the claims and thinks they are ridiculous and have a hidden motive. Bagchi said that Canada hasn’t given any specific evidence to back up the allegations.
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting released a message to TV channels, requesting them to not provide a platform to individuals who have been accused of serious crimes, like terrorism or being part of banned organizations.
The Indian government has been saying for a while that Canada is not doing enough to handle Sikh separatist extremism. They believe that these extremists want to create a separate place for Sikhs called Khalistan, which would include some parts of India’s Punjab state.
Nijjar strongly supported the idea of creating Khalistan. India sees calls for Khalistan as a serious threat to its national security.
Several groups connected to the concept of Khalistan are labeled as “terrorist organizations” according to India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Nijjar was listed as a UAPA terrorist and in 2020, the Indian National Investigation Agency accused him of trying to influence the Sikh community worldwide to support the creation of ‘Khalistan. ‘
Many Sikh groups in other countries believe that the Indian government is wrongly connecting the movement with terrorism. They intend to keep promoting the peaceful establishment of Khalistan and also raise awareness about the long history of human rights violations faced by the Sikh community in India.
Sikhs used to have their own kingdom in the Punjab region. They have been advocating for the establishment of Khalistan for many years, starting around the time India became independent from British rule in 1947.
When the Partition happened, the former colony was divided quickly based on religion. Muslims were sent to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs were sent to India. Punjab, which was a part of this colony, experienced a lot of extreme violence because it was divided in half.
The Sikhs went through a lot of suffering during the violence that happened afterwards, and they felt like they were treated badly in the new country where Hindus were the majority. Because of this, some important leaders started to push for the creation of Khalistan. Over time, there have been fights between the movement’s supporters and the government of India which led to the loss of numerous lives.
In the 1980s, there was a long period of violence in Punjab caused by some Khalistani militants. These militants did many bad things, like killing innocent people, setting off bombs without any specific target, and attacking Hindus. This information was reported by Human Rights Watch.
During counterinsurgency operations, Indian security forces had unlawfully imprisoned, tortured, killed, and made tens of thousands of Sikhs go missing, according to a rights group. The Indian government made laws to fight against rebellions, but these laws allowed for violations of people’s rights and protected the security forces from being held accountable for these violations.
In 1984, the Indian Prime Minister at that time, Indira Gandhi, told the Indian soldiers to forcefully enter the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Golden Temple is the most holy place for Sikhs. This was done to fight against Sikh separatists, which made many Sikhs very angry.
Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, which led to more violence. This violence resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs.
A year later, the violence also happened in Canada. Sikh separatists exploded a bomb on an Air India plane that had left from Toronto airport. This tragic event caused the death of all 329 people on board, which included many Canadians of Indian origin.
Today, there is no rebellion in Punjab and experts say that supporters of the Khalistan movement are not very influential in India.
But some Sikhs living in different countries, especially in Canada, Britain, and Australia, still feel sorry for the movement.
Some Sikhs believe in creating a separate country called Khalistan. They want to have regular votes to decide if this should happen and to agree on where this new country would be.
Nijjar’s death was a big surprise and made a lot of Sikhs in Canada very angry. The Sikh community in Canada is very big, with more than 770,000 members, and it is one of the largest Sikh communities outside of India.
The Canadian police have not taken anyone into custody for the murder of Nijjar. In August, the police started looking into three people they thought might be involved in a crime. They also gave a description of a car that might have been used to escape the scene. They asked the public to come forward with any information they had about these things.