New Delhi: Amid the diplomatic row between India and Canada over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, a group of people is organising a rally in support of beleaguered Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. According to reports, the rally to be held in Surrey, British Colombia, is being led by one Rahat Rao, who is believed to be close to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
With general elections to be held in India next year, experts believe that the ISI is reactivating all its modules and nodes abroad to ramp up international pressure on New Delhi. The rally in Surrey comes in the wake of the diplomatic row with India triggered by Trudeau with his allegation that New Delhi had a hand in the June killing of Nijjar in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey.
“The K2K (Kashmir to Khalistan) project is a major part of the ISI’s broad agenda of disintegrating India,” Abhinav Pandey, founder and CEO of the Usanas Foundation, a think tank on geopolitics and security affairs, told ETV Bharat. “As part of this, the ISI has created a whole lot of proxies in Canada. They want to integrate the Khalistan and Kashmir issues.”
Pandey said that in Canada, Pakistan has already penetrated the government machinery there and has deep roots. In this connection, he mentioned the case of Karima Baloch, a Baloch human rights activist who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Canada in 2020. She was known for her strong voice of dissidence over human rights abuses in Balochistan province.
Baloch was last seen alive on December 20, 2020. On December 22, 2020, her body was found submerged at the Toronto Waterfront. The Toronto Police Service initially reported that her body was found near Lake Ontario, although no further details were given. There is a strong suspicion that the ISI had a hand in her death.
Protests demanding an investigation into her death were held in Balochistan and in Canada. Ethnic Baloch, Pashtun and Sindhi minority groups in Canada issued a joint statement in this regard. Canadian police acknowledged the concerns around Baloch's death, but stated that they had found no evidence of foul play, and concluded that her death was “non-criminal”. But the suspicion of the ISI’s hand persists.
Pointing out that Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, leader of the proscribed Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) Khalistani group, is close to the ISI, Pandey said: “Pakistan is actively organising funds for Khalistani separatists ahead of the elections in India. They have renewed cross-border infiltration in the Jammu region and dropped arms through drones in Punjab to revive the now-dead Khalistan issue in India.”
As such, ISI being seen as the hand behind the rally in Surrey is no surprise, according to Pandey. “They will resort to all kinds of shenanigans to ramp up international diplomatic and civil society pressure on India ahead of the elections,” he said. “They are intensifying militancy and terrorist activities in India. They are trying to trigger communal passions and riots in India. They are trying to exploit all the fault lines in India, including the situation in Manipur."
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