Indian students in Canada need to be vigilant and fight against any attempts at radicalization by Khalistani terrorists and extremists,” says Indian recalled High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma. Mr. Verma said, “The parents should keep in touch with their children through regular communication so that they can understand their situation and advise them against falling into the trap of radicals.”
“There is an existing threat from Khalistani terrorists and extremists towards the larger Indian community, including the 319,000 students in Canada,” Verma said, adding that many students, being economically vulnerable, are lured with money and food and end up getting manipulated by these terror-extremist outfits.
Verma drew the attention of the audience to a disturbing trend, according to which a section of the student community is being convinced to protest, shouting anti-India slogans and disrespecting the national flag outside Indian diplomatic missions. Many are subsequently counseled to seek asylum because if they were to return to India, they would be punished, he said plot that has seen some succeed in being accorded asylum.
The High Commissioner’s remarks come at a time when relations between India and Canada are not good. Tensions had recently mounted after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of having something to do with the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead in Vancouver in June this year.
The Government of India promptly denied the accusations and termed them “absurd,” bereft of credible evidence. Verma, for his part, repeated that no serious proof of linking India with Nijjar’s killing had reached him since he took over his assignment in September 2022.
The crisis entered a new level when Canadian federal police linked the Lawrence Bishnoi gang with ongoing investigations and branded Verma as a ‘person of interest’ in murder and extortion cases. In retaliation, India called back Verma and five staff members; it expelled the acting High Commissioner and his team in tit-for-tat action against Canada’s moves to expel him. Verma’s declaration as ‘persona non grata’ is unprecedented for India regarding diplomatic consequences and raises the temperature between the two countries.
