EAM S Jaishankar
Amid the ongoing India-Canada row, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted the “organised crime, related to secessionist forces, violence and extremism” in Canada, raising concerns over them being “very permissive” due to political reasons.
Speaking at the ‘Discussion at Council on Foreign Relations’ in New York, Mr Jaishankar said, “In the last few years, Canada actually has seen a lot of organised crime, relating to the secessionist forces, organized crime, violence and extremism. They’re all very, very deeply mixed up. So in fact, we have been talking about specifics and information.”
He further stressed that the Indian government has provided the Canadian side with a lot of information about the crime, and there has been a large number of extradition requests.
“We have given them a lot of information about organized crime and leadership, which operates out of Canada. There are a large number of extradition requests. There are terrorist leaders, who have been identified,” he added.
The EAM raised concern over these incidents of threats to Indian diplomats and attacks on Indian consulates, stating that these are “very permissive” because of political reasons.
“Our concern is that it’s really been very permissive, because of political reasons. So we have a situation where our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked…A lot of this is often justified, as saying that’s how democracies work. If somebody gives me something specific, it doesn’t have to be restricted to Canada. But if there’s any incident which is an issue and somebody gives me something specific, as a government, I would look at it,” Mr Jaishankar further said.
Regarding PM Trudeau’s allegations, Mr Jaishankar assured that the Indian side will take action if the Canadian side provides specific information in connection with Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Nijjar’s killing.
“We told the Canadians that this is not the government of India’s policy. Secondly, we said if you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it…The picture is not complete without the context in a way,” he said.
Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Early last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an explosive statement accusing the Indian government of being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a claim that India has outrightly rejected, calling it ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’.
India has suspended its visa services in Canada, following Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s allegations of Indian involvement in the killing.
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