Sukhdool Singh, an aide of Khalistani terrorist Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala, who was wanted in India, was killed in an inter-gang rivalry in Canada’s Winnipeg city.
An A-category gangster, Sukhdool Singh had earlier escaped from Punjab to Canada. In 2017, Sukhdool Singh alias Sukha Dunuke obtained a passport and a police clearance certificate on forged documents to flee to Canada despite having seven criminal cases registered against him.
He managed to escape Punjab with the help of two police officials, who were later arrested by Moga police. Sukhdool Singh’s killing came amid growing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over the killing of another Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British California. Nijjar, who was wanted in India, was gunned down outside a gurdwara in June.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s security agencies were investigating a link between the Indian government and Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom he called a “Canadian citizen”. Nijjar was the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said while speaking at the House of Commons in Ottawa.
India rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the matter.
The Indian government on Wednesday issued an advisory for Indian nationals and students in Canada, urging them to “exercise utmost caution” in view of “growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and violence in Canada”.
The advisory came after the Canadian government issued a similar advisory for its citizens living in India in view of the ongoing standoff between the two nations over Nijjar’s killing.