Amid ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over alleged attacks on pro-Khalistan separatist figures, a secret meeting between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and his Canadian counterpart took place in Singapore last week. This meeting was reported by The Washington Post, citing unnamed Canadian officials.
During the meeting, Canadian officials presented alleged evidence that India had recruited networks of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to carry out the assassination of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and attacks on Sikh separatists. India’s Ministry of External Affairs is yet to respond to these claims.
According to the report, Doval initially “pretended to have no idea” who Lawrence Bishnoi was. However, he later acknowledged that Bishnoi was “capable of orchestrating violence from wherever he was imprisoned” and that he “was known to be up to no good from his cell.”
Interestingly, in June 2022, the Indian High Commission had alerted Canada about gangsters operating from its territory and being involved in violent crimes in Punjab, following the murder of singer Sidhu Moose Wala. The Lawrence Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for Moose Wala’s murder and has a presence in Canada through its associates.
Canada requested the five-hour meeting to persuade the Indian government to end an “escalating campaign of violence” in the country. The meeting was attended by Canadian security adviser Nathalie Drouin, deputy foreign minister David Morrison and a senior member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Canadian officials also informed Doval that details about alleged Indian involvement in attacks on Sikh separatists would likely become public as the trial of four suspects for Nijjar’s murder was scheduled for next month. Nijjar was shot and killed in Surrey, British Columbia, in June of last year.
The report quotes Doval as saying that India “would deny any link to the Nijjar murder and any link to any other violence in Canada, no matter what the evidence.”
Furthermore, the report claimed that the six Indian diplomats, including High Commissioner Sanjay Verma, who were asked to leave Canada, were directly involved in gathering intelligence on Sikh separatists who were later killed, attacked or threatened by representatives of the India.
India has strongly denied these allegations, calling them “absurd allegations” and attributing them to the “political agenda” of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a tit-for-tat move, India also expelled six Canadian diplomats, including Canada’s top diplomat in New Delhi.
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