Despite Indian government’s strong stand against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s non-committal stand against pro-Khalistan separatists, a Khalistani terrorist, Jaspal Atwal, convicted of attempted assassination of Malkiat Singh Sindhu, was invited to an official state dinner hosted during Trudeau’s India visit.
Sindhu was the former Minister of State, who was ambushed by Canadian Sikhs during his private visit to Canada in 1986 and shot at. Sindhu survived the assassination attempt and four men who attempted the assassination, including Atwal, were convicted in 1987.
Atwal is a former member of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a militant group fighting to establish an independent Sikh state Punjab and was banned in Canada and designated a terrorist organization in 2003. While he was invited to a formal event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner Thursday in Delhi, the invitation now stands rescinded. Despite this, Atwal was seeing photographed with Trudeau’s wife Sophie and Liberal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi at a reception hosted by the Hindi film industry in Mumbai on Tuesday. This comes as a major embarrassment to Trudeau, who said Trudeau’s government and Canada stand for unified India and opposes any form of violence and extremism.
Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian lawyer and politician, reportedly told Canada based CTV News Channel, that during the summit at Davos, Prime Minister Modi and took Prime Minister Trudeau aside and expressed concerns over Canadian ministers, including Trudeau, hobnobbing with Khalistani extremists in Canada. He says that the public association of Canadian politicians with the extremists is a matter of grave concern.
Atwal has also been convicted in an automobile fraud case and was charged, but not convicted, in a 1985 near-fatal attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who has been an opponent of Sikh separatist movement. While it is not clear how Atwal got into the guest list, it raises serious questions over Canada’s stand over support to Khalistani extremists.
