1: Hardeep Singh Nijjar profile: How did he became a Canadian?
- Nijjar was born in 1977 in Jalandhar district in India’s northern state of Punjab.
- Fled India after Punjab CM Beant Singh was assassinated in 1995.
- Moved to Canada in 1996/1997 on a fake passport in the name of “Ravi Sharma”, where he took the disguise of a “PLUMBER” and also worked as a truck driver.
- In 1997, Nijjar applied for asylum, claiming himself to be a victim of police harassment in India. But he didn’t initially succeed.
- He entered Canada via a “marriage of convenience” with a woman who sponsored his immigration in 1997.
- Nijjar was under Canadian Government’s investigation for a 4-year duration as his appeals for asylum was rejected again and again.
- In 2007, he became a full-fledged Canadian citizen.
2: Canada was aware of Nijjar’s terror antecedents and Khalistani Terrorism:
- Hardeep Nijjar was a long-standing concern for the Canadian government.
- He was put on the no-fly list and his bank accounts were even frozen.
- Nijjar was questioned by the Canadian police in 2016 about his involvement in weapons training.
- In April 2018, Nijjar was briefly detained but released without charges in Canada.
- Canada’s 2018 Annual Report on the Threat of Terrorism, for the first time, mentioned ‘Khalistani extremism’ as a risk factor.
- Prime Minister Trudeau to pledge to address and remove the reference to ‘Khalistan’ from the report.
- In 2019, then public safety minister Ralph Goodale removed all references to such extremism from his department’s 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada.
3: Usurping a Sikh Religious site: Nijjar took over a Surrey Gurudwara:
- In January 2019, he was elected unopposed as the leader of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, one of Canada’s largest Sikh organizations.
- In 2021, he tried to incite people against India. In a speech, he invoked the use of weapons against India. “We will have to take up arms,” he said. “We will have to dance to the edges of swords…. Those who advocate peaceful methods, we need to leave them behind.”
(Video: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-a-year-after-hardeep-singh-nijjars-death-mysteries-remain-about-how-he/)
- He had also called for a ban on Indian Embassy officials from attending various events organized by local Gurudwaras in Canada.
4: Criminal Record, co-terrorists and Pakistani Link:
Friends with terrorists:
- Nijjar’s entry into Khalistani terrorism came into the picture when he got associated with Moninder Singh, one of the founders of the Sikh Liberation Front (SLF).
- Nijjar and others formed a terrorist gang and recruited four people. They conspired to kidnap and kill people of other faiths to create a sense of fear and disaffection among different sections of society in Punjab.
- Nijjar shared stories with friends of how he, as a boy, served food to of the Khalistani separatists.
- He was inspired to join the Khalistani movement by Anokh Singh Babbar, a co-founder of Babbar Khalsa, the terrorist group behind the Air India Kanishka bombing, the worst terror attack in Canada’s history.
- Nijjar was also a close friend of Gurdeep Singh Deepa, who was an important member of the Khalistan Commando Force, notorious for its brutal attacks, according to the report. In 1991, its militants killed over 125 Hindus, even children.
- He came in contact with Jagtar Singh Tara, chief of Khalistan Tiger Force, in 2012.
Nijjar made rounds between Canada and Pakistan and maintained his criminal spree:
- Nijjar carried out terrorist activities on Canadian soil with impunity. He organized arms training camps in Canada, where he trained individuals to use firearms like AK-47s, sniper rifles, and pistols.
- He had also sent individuals to India to carry out targeted killings and attacks against political and religious figures.
- Nijjar, who was initially a Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operative, came in contact with Pakistan-based KTF chief Jagtar Singh Tara, the assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. He visited Pakistan in April 2012 under the guise of being a Baisakhi Jatha member.
- After Jagtar was caught in Thailand and handed over to India, Nijjar took over KTF.
The training camps in Canada:
- In December 2015, Nijjar organized a weapons training camp in Mission Hills, British Columbia, Canada to train Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal in the use of an AK-47 assault rifle, a sniper rifle and a pistol.
- In January 2016, Nijjar sent Dhaliwal to Punjab to kill Shiv Sena leaders and create a communal situation in the state. However, in June of that year, Punjab Police caught Dhaliwal.
- Nijjar, along with gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh Dalla, trained a module of four KTF members and this led to the formation of the gang to carry out targeted killings, ransom and kidnappings in 2020 and 2021.
Attacks directed on India coordinated by Nijjar:
- Nijjar was involved in bombing of a cinema in Ludhiana (Punjab) in 2007 killing six people and injuring dozens.
- Ramandeep Singh, an accused in the 2010 Patiala bomb blast that injured four people, revealed that Nijjar was involved in providing financial assistance for carrying out the attack. He had also said that Nijjar provided financial assistance to carry out terrorist activities in Punjab and other parts of the country.
- Nijjar had planned a terrorist attack on the Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa in 2014 but he could not do so due to not getting a visa for India.
- In 2014, Surjit Singh Kohli, a Canadian national, visited India at the behest of Nijjar. He (Surjit) motivated one former BKI terrorist Parminder Singh for the killing of Baba Piara Singh Bhaniarawala, a socio-religious head and Sanjeev Ghanauli, a Shiv Sena leader for their alleged role in anti-panthic activities.Nijjar provided funds to his associate Kohli, who further handed over to Parminder for purchasing local made weapons in 2015.
5: No cooperation from Canada on Nijjar prior to his death:
India made a case against him using proper legal means:
- His name was figured on the most-wanted list handed over by then-Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February 2018.
- India’s National Investigative Agency (NIA) registered several cases against Nijjar in which there were allegations of setting up a module in Canada related to Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal. Nijjar was associated with the banned terrorist organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), whose chief is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) designated Nijjar in July 2020 and the NIA announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for him. The probe agency had also filed a chargesheet against the Khalistani terrorist at its court in Mohali.
Red Corner Notice:
6: Why Canada refuses to Cooperate with India? Diaspora politics and liberal greed!
- Canadian refusal to cooperate and baseless antagonism against India is nothing new. It happened in 1989 and it happened prior to Kanishka bombing. No intelligence is acted upon and all pleas and requests to solve the issues legally and diplomatically are struck down by Canada.
- Canada’s coddling of terrorists and RCMP’s botched investigation into the 1985 Kanishka bombing added to the Indian frustrations. And what was Canada’s attitude after this? In 1989, Canada expelled Indian diplomats after framing them for spying and the then foreign affairs minister Joe Clark doubled down on the move saying it was the Canadian Sikh community that was destabilized.
- Indian governments going back more than four decades have criticized Canada’s unwillingness to crack down on the terrorist activities and anti-India hate speech by hardcore criminals and terrorists. The Canadian politicians, especially Liberal ones, put diaspora politics above Canada’s broader foreign policy interests and it is evident in Trudeau’s foreign policy failure.
- Due to Trudeau’s absolute arrogance, an 800,000 strong Sikh community is finding itself bearing the brunt of Canadian government’s stupidity.
- The Nijjar case didn’t happen in a vaccum. Canada brought this mess upon itself.
