Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in June in Canada
Emboldened by their "rising clout" in Canada, pro-Khalistani extremists (PKE) have started openly intimidating minority Hindus there and many instances of defacing of temples have been reported, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
"The open threats by Khalistanis to the physical security of Indian missions and diplomats in Canada is a very serious development and challenges the obligation of Canada under the Vienna Convention," a senior government officer who's closely monitoring the situation said, requesting anonymity.
It appears there are different scales for measuring human rights, the officer said.
"Voices from Canada are very strong on even trivial issues in Punjab, while there has been a complete silence on intimidation, violence, drug trafficking and extortion by PKEs sitting in Canada, affecting both countries," the officer added.
All these issues were discussed in a high-level meeting of intelligence agencies today, people familiar with the matter said.
The issues discussed included the soft-pedalling of Khalistanis, which ensured that moderate and pro-India Sikhs were thrown out of all big gurdwaras in Canada by the muscle and money power of the PKEs.
Dossiers maintained by the intelligence agencies show Punjab today suffers heavily because of extortion rackets run from Canada.
Canada-based gangsters bring drugs from Pakistan through drones and sell across Punjab. A part of this money goes back to Khalistani extremists in Canada.
"Over a period of years, Khalistani extremists got further emboldened and started operating with impunity from Canada. In the last decade, links of Canada-based Khalistani extremists have emerged in more than half of the terror cases reported from Punjab," an intelligence report stated.
"Even in Canada, many Khalistanis are part of the drug trade. Inter-gang rivalries among gangsters from Punjab are common in Canada now. It may be recalled that a pro-India Sikh leader Ripudaman Singh Malik was killed in 2022 in Surrey itself, a murder which many say was orchestrated by Hardip Singh Nijjar," the report stated.
"But, Canadian agencies did not show any urgency in finding the real people behind it and unravelling the real conspiracy. Two local criminals who were not of Indian origin were only charged in the case," it stated.
According to the report, the targeted killings of Sikhs, Hindus and Christians in Punjab after 2016 were the handiwork of Nijjar and his allies, but Canadian agencies never started any investigation against Nijjar and his friends Bhagat Singh Brar, Parry Dulai, Arsh Dalla, Lakbir Landa and many others.
For Canada, they remain political activists despite the increasing body count in Punjab, sources said.
"Khalistani extremists have been operating freely from Canadian soil for nearly 50 years now in the garb of notions like 'freedom of expression', 'political advocacy', etc. The Kanishka bombing by Khalistani extremists in 1985 was one of the biggest terror attacks in the world in the pre-9/11 era," another officer said.
The officer said the lackadaisical approach of Canadian agencies led to Talwinder Singh Parmar and his group of Khalistani extremists going scot-free. The same Talwinder Singh Parmar is now a hero of Khalistanis in Canada with Sikhs For Justice naming its campaign centre after him, the officer added.