• PM Trudeau says Canada will never tolerate foreign govt’s involvement in killing citizens
• Urges India to cooperate, end ‘misleading rhetoric’
• Indian home minister Amit Shah ‘authorised intel-gathering missions, attacks on Sikh separatists’
• Bishnoi gang accused of working with Indian govt agents

NEW DELHI: The Canadian police have accused Indian diplomats in Canada of using the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang for “involvement in homicides, extortions and other criminal acts of violence” in the country and it is their request that India waive immunity for six diplomats so that they could be questioned about this, The Wire reported on Tuesday.

However, India rejected the demand, which triggered Ottawa’s decision to expel them.

The Wire also cited a news report as saying that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah was allegedly involved in authorising intelligence-gathering and attacks.

The Canadian police went public with its allegations after relations between India and Canada reached their lowest point on Monday evening, with both sides expelling six diplomats, including their top envoys, in a day of fast-moving developments.

On Monday, Canada sent a formal diplomatic communication to India intimating it that six Indian diplomats, including the Indian high commissioner, were “persons of interests in a matter related to an investigation” and that Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigators be allowed to question them. India described the Canadian charge as “preposterous”.

A few hours later, the Canadian government declared the six diplomats persona non grata, prompting the Ministry of External Affairs to say the diplomats were being recalled for their own safety. The Indian foreign ministry subsequently announced the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats from India.

‘Serious criminal activity’

In Ottawa, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme read out a statement to the media which spoke broadly about the “involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada”.

“It is not our normal process to publicly disclose information about ongoing investigations, in an effort to preserve their integrity. However, we feel it is necessary to do so at this time due to the significant threat to public safety in our country,” he said at the press conference, which was held on a public holiday in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also released a statement on the expulsion. “As the Commissioner of the RCMP, Mike Duheme, stated earlier today, the RCMP has clear and compelling evidence that agents of the Government of India have engaged in, and continue to engage in, activities that pose a significant threat to public safety,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Mr Trudeau added that Canada “will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government in threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil — a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of international law.”

Unsuccessful meeting

The Canadian premier revealed that earlier this week Canadian deputy commissioner of federal policing Mark Flynn had attempted to discuss the matter and “present evidence pertaining to agents of the Government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity in Canada”.

“These attempts were unsuccessful, therefore deputy commissioner Flynn met with officials of the Government of India, along with the national security and intelligence adviser (NSIA), Nathalie Drouin, and deputy minister of foreign affairs David Morrison over the weekend,” he stated.

In a part of the press conference, the RCMP official stated that the meeting took place in Singapore on Oct 12, but did “not meet the objectives that we wanted to make sure that we could collaborate and work together”.

While the RCMP did not mention the name of the Indian government official who allegedly met with the Canadian NSA in Singapore, The Washington Post claimed that national security adviser Ajit Doval was present at the five-hour-long meeting.

It was at that meeting that Canadian officials, as per the Post report, gave “evidence” of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang networks and their operational links to Indian diplomats.

However, the meeting hit a dead-end: “Doval made clear that India ‘would deny any link to the Nijjar murder and any link to any other violence in Canada no matter what the evidence was,’ a senior Canadian official said.”

In an update to the already published story, according to The Wire, The Post quoted a Canadian official as having said that “senior official in India” is Indian home minister Amit Shah, who along with “a senior official in RAW” allegedly authorised the intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists, conversations and texts among Indian diplomats show.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs have said that Mr Trudeau’s press conference was the “same old Trudeau saying the same old things for the same old reasons”.

Bishnoi group

A senior RCMP official present at the press conference publicly named gangsters of the Lawrence Bishnoi group that she claimed were working in tandem with the Indian government.

Bishnoi, currently imprisoned in Gujarat, has publicly claimed responsibility for several high-profile murders, including the recent shooting of a Maharashtra politician in Mumbai.

He also took responsibility for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar last September, shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that there were “credible” allegations of Indian government agents being involved in the incident.

According to The Wire, Bishnoi operates his network from jail without apparent impediment. Last year, a video surfaced of him conversing with Bajrang Dal extremist Monu Manesar, accused of a double murder in Haryana.

The Canadian police officer also stated that besides the Bishnoi gang, there were also other organised crime groups but which would not be named at this stage.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024