Tensions strike India and Canada as soon as once more as separatist chief warns of menace to Air India flights

210

India and Canada are as soon as once more dealing with diplomatic tensions after a distinguished separatist chief warned Sikhs to not journey on Air India flights later this month, citing probably life-threatening penalties.

The Canada-based Khalistani chief, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, launched a video through which he repeated a number of threats of hazard to these travelling by the Indian state service on 19 November.

“We’re asking the Sikh individuals to not fly by way of Air India on 19 November. There shall be a worldwide blockade. Don’t journey by Air India or your life shall be at risk,” he mentioned, repeating the threats in a video circulating on social media.

“It’s my warning to the federal government of India,” mentioned Mr Pannun, who was earlier rumoured to have been killed in a automotive accident within the US.

Mr Pannun, who’s designated an unbiased terrorist by the Indian authorities, claimed New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Worldwide (IGI) airport could be shut down on 19 November, calling for its identify to be modified.

India is internet hosting the ultimate match of the worldwide males’s cricket World Cup on the identical date.

“It’s the similar day on which the ultimate match of the World Terror [sic] Cup shall be performed. It will likely be proven to the world {that a} genocide of Sikhs occurred in India and India did it. Once we liberate Punjab, the identify of those airports shall be Shahid Beant Singh and Shahid Satwant Singh airport,” mentioned Mr Pannun, referencing the 2 separatist leaders who assassinated former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984.

The Impartial has not verified the authenticity of the video.

On Sunday, Indian officers mentioned they might focus on the menace with Canadian authorities.

“We will take up the menace in opposition to Air India flights originating from and terminating in Canada, with the involved Canadian authorities,” India’s excessive commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, advised the Indian newspaper Hindustan Occasions.

He added that the Indian authorities had seen the video issued by the Khalistani chief.

“We’ve studied the contents of the video, which is in clear violation of the Chicago Conference, which lays out a framework for worldwide civil aviation operations. Canada and India, amongst many different nations, are events to the conference,” the envoy mentioned.

India and Canada are anticipated to sort out such threats in accordance with the bilateral civil aviation settlement, he mentioned.

The threats to focus on flights and India’s largest airport bear a resemblance to the terrorist assault orchestrated by Khalistan leaders in June 1985, ensuing within the deaths of 329 individuals on board Air India flight 182.

It comes after Mr Verma mentioned the Canadian police probe into the homicide of a Sikh separatist chief this 12 months had been broken by a high-level Canadian official’s public assertion.

“I might go a step additional and say now the investigation has already been tainted,” Mr Verma advised the Globe and Mail. “A course has come from somebody at a excessive degree to say India or Indian brokers are behind it,” he mentioned, with out naming the official.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau despatched bilateral ties into limbo in September after suggesting there was Indian involvement within the homicide of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.

The 2 nations have been hit by the diplomatic row, which resulted in Canada withdrawing 41 diplomats from India after New Delhi in September requested Ottawa to cut back its diplomatic presence following Canada’s allegations over Nijjar’s killing.

Mr Verma mentioned India had nonetheless not been offered with concrete proof by Canada or Canada’s allies of India’s involvement, regardless of a US envoy saying that the 5 Eyes alliance was conscious of India’s interference.

Weeks earlier than world leaders of probably the most highly effective economies had been set to fulfill for the G20 Summit held in New Delhi, Canada approached its closest allies of the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing nations to collectively increase the problem on the summit, Western officers who spoke on the situation of anonymity advised The Washington Submit.

The Impartial has contacted India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs for remark.

supply hyperlink