Nijjar was wanted in India, Canada didn’t act on Interpol notice

As India and Canada are locked in a diplomatic row, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing in June last year led to this crisis, was wanted by the Indian law enforcement agencies. He was facing an Interpol red corner notice and his anti-India activities were flagged to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2018, seeking his extradition, but no action was ever taken against him.

In July 2020, India declared Nijjar as an “individual terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. On a request by the Punjab police, Interpol had issued a red corner notice against him in 2016, while the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a Rs 10-lakh bounty on his head in July 2022.

PM Trudeau wrecked bilateral ties: Envoy

Ottawa: Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s envoy to Canada, who has been expelled over alleged link to killing of Nijjar, said PM Trudeau had wrecked bilateral ties. He was only relying on intel rather than evidence, he said.

Vikash Yadav not a spy, claims family

Kin of Vikash Yadav, who was indicted by the US for Pannun murder plot, said they had no information about him working for any spy agency. “He never mentioned about it. For us, he is still working for the CRPF,” his cousin Avinash Yadav said.

Nijjar had been arrested by the Punjab police in 1995, but he managed to get out and later disappeared. Born in Punjab on November 10, 1977, Nijjar first faced the wrath of the Punjab police in the early 1990s when amid a crackdown, his brother was arrested.

Nijjar fled India in February 1997 using a fake passport issued in Uttarakhand (then part of UP) in the name of “Ravi Sharma”. On reaching Canada, he sought asylum citing harassment by the police in India. He later got married to a Canadian woman and got Canadian citizenship and passport.

During 2013-14, Nijjar visited Pakistan where he was believed to have met Jagtar Singh Tara of the Babbar Khalsa International, wanted for the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh. Sources said the Pakistan’s ISI roped in Nijjar and helped him in organising training camps for extremist groups associated with the Khalistan movement.

In the past few years, Nijjar was actively associated with the Sikhs for Justice movement led by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In February 2018, Nijjar’s name figured on the “most wanted list” handed over by then Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh to Trudeau. In April 2018, Nijjar was briefly taken into custody in Canada, but was released without a charge. In January 2019, he was elected unopposed to head Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. Notably, Canada’s 2018 Annual Report on the Threat of Terrorism had for the first time referred to the “Khalistani extremism” as a risk factor.

In another incident a month after Nijjar’s death, Canadian citizen Ripudaman Singh Malik, acquitted of the Kanishka plane bombing, was murdered in Vancouver. Tanner Fox of Abbotsford and 23-year-old Jose Lopez of New Westminster were arrested for Malik’s murder.