Khalistan terror camp running in Canada to attack Punjab; Justin Trudeau govt alerted

Hardeep Nijjar, the operational head of Khalistan Terror Force (KTF), is a baptized Sikh staying in Surrey since 1995 on Canadian passport.

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New Delhi: The Indian intelligence agencies have alerted Canada's Justin Trudeau government, saying that pro-Khalistan terrorists are running a camp near Mission city in British Columbia to carry out strikes in Punjab.

According to a report in The Times of India, Punjab intelligence officers have prepared a report mentioning that Canadian Sikh Hardeep Nijjar, the new operational head of Khalistan Terror Force (KTF), has formed a module comprising Sikh youths to carry out the attacks.

Nijjar is a baptized Sikh staying in Surrey since 1995 on a Canadian passport. Seeking Nijjar’s extradition, the Punjab government has submitted the report to the Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Referring to the attack which took place at Pathankot airbase on January 2, the report said Nijjar "was to arrange weapons from Pakistan but due to high alert on the border in the wake of Pathankot incident, it could not materialize".

"Nijjar has been imparting arms training to his group in Canada after the arrest of former KTF chief Jagtar Tara in Thailand by the Interpol last year. He took Mandeep Singh and three more Sikh youths recently for AK-47 training in a range near Mission where they were made to fire for four hours daily," the report said.

Nijjar is a proclaimed terrorist in Punjab. 

In April, a report in the Hindustan Times said that the Indian government has intelligence inputs which indicate that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency is using Sikh extremists in Canada for pro-Khalistan and anti-India activities.

As per the Indian security agencies, Nijjar travelled to Thailand in December 2014 to meet Jagtar Singh Tara, named in the 1995 assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and provided financial help to him.

Notably, Tara was arrested in Thailand and deported to India in January last year.

Later, apparently on Tara’s order, Nijjar travelled to Pakistan to arrange for Tara’s escape from Thailand with ISI’s help.

Nijjar was also suspected to be involved in a plan to attack camps of Dera Sacha Sauda, the sect led by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.