United Press International
Ottawa — The government of India has warned Canadian officials in Ottawa of the regrouping of violent Sikh separatists, the Vancouver Sun reported Tuesday.
A senior official with the Indian High Commission told the Sun Monday the issue of the Khalistan movement was raised by India as recently as “three days ago” with Canadian officials.
“We do believe there is a certain resurgence of this movement here,” said diplomat Rajiv Sahi.
Khalistan is the name of a territory Sikhs want to carve out of India’s Punjab region.
The violent separatist movement was largely crushed in India in 1992, but last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India has “credible information” the group was reorganizing in Britain, Canada, Germany and Pakistan, the newspaper said.
Canada is in the process of delisting defunct groups from its list of terror organizations, and Liberal Public Safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh told the newspaper the Conservative government wasn’t responding to the threat appropriately.
“These guys (separatists) that are here are not welcome in India and yet they are able to function in a place like Canada with total impunity — it is mind-boggling,” he said.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International