New Delhi, 25 Oct  

Of the 26 requests sent to Canada for extraditing Khalistani terrorists, Ottawa has resolved only five and the rest remain in limbo, India's top envoy to that country has said, calling it the result of "inaction".

The five men are in the process of being extradited, High Commissioner Sanjay Verma told PTI in an interview this week. He said he is not at liberty to disclose the name or give details.

The interview took place on Wednesday, a couple of days after his return to New Delhi. India recalled him and five other Indian diplomats after they were named "person of interest" in a Canadian investigation into the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani terrorist who was a Canadian citizen.

Relations between the two countries have plunged to their lowest level ever over the issue of Canada's tacit support for Khalistani extremists among the large Sikh-Canadian population of about 8 lakh. New Delhi accuses Ottawa of doing next to nothing to stop the activities of Khalistani supporters who seek to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

"According to the last information that I had, five of them have been resolved. Twenty-one are still pending, and these are pending since decades. So, I would say that there is an inaction rather than consultation. All the issues which get into the judicial system of a country, sometimes need consultations, because we follow two different judicial systems," he said.

But, if there is no action in the last four-five or 10 years, then "I would only call it inaction", Verma said.

Recently, the Ministry of External Affairs said the 26 extradition requests are for people who have been charged in India with terror and related crimes. India has also sought "provisional arrest" of several of the accused, which remains pending with Canada, under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

Among those named by the ministry are Gurjeet Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Lakhbir Singh Landa and Arshdeep Singh Gill.

Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey in the Canadian province of British Columbia on June 18 last year.

During the interview, the recalled envoy also spoke about the long-standing people-to-people ties between the two countries and the genesis of the Khalistani problem in Canada and how it became a hotbed of this movement.

Asked if the frosty relations can ever warm up, Verma said: "I would only want that ties between the two countries get better. But, it should be better not because we want to make it better but because (we) both respect each other, both want to understand each other, both understand each other's core concerns."

He said India's core concern is very clear. "It has been told many times to our Canadian friends that our core concern is the anti-India elements there, the Khalistani extremists and terrorists over there, who keep challenging India's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They (Canada) will need to somewhere handle them."

He pointed out that the Khalistanis in Canada are Canadian citizens, not Indian nationals. "So, what will be the future of India, this will be decided by Indians. Foreigners will not decide it. They are ... of Indian-origin but for us they are foreigners. Foreigners never had, have or will have any right to interfere in our internal affairs."

Indians first arrived in Canada in the early 1900s by ship. Despite facing racial discrimination and segregation, the Indians continued to live in Canada and eventually became citizens. A second wave of immigration happened after the 1984 Operation Blue Star on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and the ensuing Sikh militancy for a separate Khalistan state in Punjab.

While the Khalistani movement has no takers in Punjab or India now, it continues to flourish among a small minority of Sikhs in the Canadian Sikh community.

The second round of Sikh immigrants found refuge in Canada due to "lenient Canadian legal system", Verma said. "They were able to get their permanent residence in Canada, citizenship in Canada. They sought asylum in Canada, on fictitious grounds."-PTI