At ‘secret meet’, Ajit Doval told Canada officials of Bishnoi reach: US daily

Indian diplomats in Canada have over the last year “collected intelligence on alleged Sikh separatists”, which is used by Indian agencies to identify targets carried out by the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, the influential Washington Post newspaper has said.

In an article on Monday, the US-based newspaper quoted Canadian officials as saying that “a senior official in the Indian Government and an operative in the country's spy agency” were masterminding the "broader campaign of violence" in Canada.

Two days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had, in September last year, accused India of killing pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar — Nijjar was killed in June 2023 — the newspaper said one Sukhdool Singh was killed in the Canadian city of Winnipeg.

In great detail, the newspaper recounted a “secret meeting” last Saturday in Singapore between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Canadian counterpart Nathalie Drounin, Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison as well as a senior member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in which they outlined alleged evidence showing that India had enlisted the Bishnoi gang networks in Canada to carry out Nijjar’s killing.

The newspaper said Doval acknowledged that Bishnoi “was capable of orchestrating violence from wherever he is incarcerated” and “was known to be up to no good from his jail cell”.

The Canadian officials told Washington Post that India “would deny any link to the Nijjar murder and link to any other violence in Canada, no matter what the evidence was.” The meeting in Singapore is said to have gone on for five hours.

Doval ended it by asking his counterparts to treat the discussions as if these “never took place”, the Washington Post said.

Bishnoi (31) and his gang members have been frequently accused on social media of collaborating with the BJP government while in prison, Washington Post added, pointing out how Bishnoi had taken responsibility for Nijjar's killing.

Meanwhile, the RCMP put out a statement on Monday night saying the “extraordinary situation is compelling us to speak about what we have discovered in our multiple ongoing investigations into the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada”.