In a first specific and direct comment on the India-Canada row, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted that New Delhi had told Ottawa regarding Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing that conducting extrajudicial killings abroad was not the Government of India’s policy and “if you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it”.
The External Affairs Minister’s comments come against the backdrop of the US and Canada repeatedly telling India to cooperate in the ongoing probe into Nijjar’s killing.
Speaking at a think-tank event after delivering his speech at the UN General Assembly, Jaishankar said, “The picture isn’t complete without the context in a way. You also have to appreciate that in the last few years, Canada actually has seen a lot of organised crime relating to the secessionist forces, violence and extremism. They are all very, very deeply mixed up.”
The Minister also said India had given the Canadians “a lot of information about organised crime and leadership operating out of Canada”. “There are a large number of extradition requests. There are terrorist leaders who have been identified…. Our concern is that it’s really been very permissive because of political reasons. So, we have a situation where our diplomats are threatened and our consulates have been attacked,” he added.
Jaishankar said a lot of this was often justified by saying that is how democracies worked. “If somebody gives me something specific, it doesn’t have to be restricted to Canada. But if there is any incident which is an issue and somebody gives me something specific as a government, I would look at it,” he further noted.
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