Ottawa: In what believed to be the artifact of Indian intelligence agencies, Canada-based Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey city.
A resident of Bharsinghpur village in Punjab’s Jalandhar, Nijjar, who was the most-wanted to India and carried a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, was found dead inside a car with bullet wounds in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib, of which he was the head, in Surrey.
Quoting preliminary information, officials said Nijjar was shot by two unidentified assailants and died on the spot.
When his body was being moved from the scene by the Canadian police, a group of Sikhs raised pro-Khalistan and anti-India slogans.
In July last year, India’s dreaded National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on information leading to Nijjar’s arrest in connection with an attack on a Hindu priest in Jalandhar in 2021.
The reward announcement came nearly three weeks after the NIA filed a charge sheet against him and three others in connection with the attack.
According to the NIA, Nijjar was also promoting violent agenda of pro-Khalistan group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ in India.
Earlier, Avtar Singh Khanda, a leading exponent of Khalistan who groomed Amritpal Singh to lead the attempt to revive the Khalistan movement and led March protest on the Indian High Commission in London, died in a hospital in Birmingham, UK, a few days ago, leaving British Sikhs shocked and suspicious. He was 35.
Khanda, as per the accounts of pro-Khalistan, UK-based Sikhs, had recently fallen ill and was diagnosed with terminal blood cancer. However, pro-Khalistan elements did not seem impressed by this version and expressed surprise over the sudden death of Khanda, a close associate of Gurpatwant Singh, the rabble-rousing leader of Sikhs for Justice campaign, and Babbar Khalsa International terrorist Paramjit Singh Pamma.
His supporters said that he was a victim of poisoning by pro-India elements, with one even hinting at “chemically induced leukaemia”.
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