India protests ‘threat’ to Capt

Chandigarh, May  1

A threat publicly issued to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh by pro-Khalistan elements during an event in Surrey city of Canada’s British Columbia province recently has drawn an official protest from India.

Sources said the Indian High Commission in Canadian capital Ottawa has lodged a “formal complaint” to Global Affairs-Canada, the foreign office, last week.

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Videos of the ‘Vaisakhi Parade’ on April 22 have been sent to the Canadian foreign ministry as proof of the open threats by Sikh hardliners. The communication has also objected to the public display of Khalistan floats with images of terrorists, pictures of Kalashnikov rifles and photographs of former and serving army and police officers who are on the hit-list of Sikh radicals.

It is learnt that the Canadian authorities were cautioned about the “anti-India propaganda” on April 13 itself. The Canadian foreign ministry, responding to the early warning, said it would take “necessary action”.

“These kinds of open and cheap threats show the extent of radicalisation in a relatively small section of the Sikh community in Canada. They endorse our stand of pro-Khalistani leanings of such elements in the Canadian Sikh community,” Raveen Thukral, media adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister, said.

Capt Amarinder had refused to meet Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, accusing him and other ministers of Punjab origin in the government of Canadian PM  Justin Trudeau of links with radical elements. — IANS