Post-operation Amritpal: Getting death threats from Khalistani groups, says chief of Canada-based body

Gill, a social activist for the Punjabi community’s issues worldwide has written to the chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) regarding an apparent threat to the security of the High Commissioner of India to Canada, Sanjay Verma.

Self-styled radical Sikh preacher and head of Waris Punjab De Amritpal Singh. (PTI Photo/File)

4 min readJalandharApr 4, 2023 07:50 PM IST First published on: Apr 3, 2023 at 01:57 PM IST

Punjabis living in the Surrey area of Canada have been facing death threats and assaults from radical Khalistani groups ever since the Punjab Police began their crackdown on Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, alleged Maninder Singh Gill, president of Friends of Canada and India Foundation.

Gill, a social activist for the Punjabi community’s issues worldwide and a strong advocate of Indo-Canadian cooperation, has written to the chief of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) regarding these problems, including an apparent threat to the security of the High Commissioner of India to Canada, Sanjay Verma.

“My life and limb are in danger from Khalistani radicals every time I walk out of my house. Please look into this situation and ensure that the Indo- Canadian community can live peacefully in Canada and the rule of law is restored in the city of Surrey,” said Gill in the letter.

Gill, the CEO of Radio India in Canada, informed that on March 19, he was organise a dinner function in the honour of Verma, who was visiting western Canada.

Gill said radical Khalistani groups called for a protest at the venue on March 18. The Indian consulate informed the RCMP and the latter assured that the high commissioner’s safety would be ensured, and the event should go on as per plan, added Gill.

“After the assurances from the RCMP, we continued our programme as planned. On March 19, Khalistani groups, in the name of democratic protest, came to the event venue and blocked the front entrance, which was illegal as it was private property. The hall’s owner called the RCMP to get the entrance cleared, but to no avail. And our guests, who started reporting at the venue, were attacked by Khalistanis, and there were multiple instances of assault, pushing, threats, flogging
and manhandling. Even media persons were not spared,” wrote Gill.

“One Sameer Kaushal, a known mediaperson, was attacked. Gurtej Gill was attacked by a mob, he suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalised. Surinder Sharma’s car was stoned and damaged. All this happened while inflammatory speeches were being made on the stage by Khalistani leaders (mentioned their names in the letter). The protesters were armed with sticks and swords as they had pre-planned it and were all masked to avoid identification,” read the letter to the RCMP chief.

The RCMP was a mute spectator to this violence and could not ensure the safety of the guests, said Gill.

“There was an attack on the organising committee members, including Bittu Atwal and Paul Baraich, who were assaulted, death threats were issued and termed as ‘lapdogs of Modi’,” the letter read.

“RCMP officers did not reach the inside of the convention centre even after 20 minutes of being informed on 911 that 20-25 people were assaulting the organising committee members. After reaching, one RCMP officer remarked that protestors were exercising their ‘right to protest’ . I wonder if the right of assault and trespass is covered under the right to protest in Canada?” Gill asked in the letter.

“After a free run of five hours, the protesters left the venue at 9 pm and we left the venue afterwards in an atmosphere of fear and threat,” he said.

“Next day, on March 20, I got a call from the phone number (mentioned in the letter), who was impersonating a CBC reporter and tried to extract information about the Indian high commissioner’s itinerary. An individual from the same number tried to extract the high commissioner’s itinerary from a different committee member, under a different pretext. Sensing the danger to the security of the high commissioner, I, as a responsible citizen, immediately approached the Surrey RCMP at the Newton station and informed everything but received a highly irresponsible reply from the officer at the station (Which he mentioned in the letter),” he said.

“I am continuously getting death threats from various Instagram accounts, Tiktok accounts, and mobile numbers. They are threatening me that I will suffer the same fate as Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was shot dead in Surrey,” mentioned Gill.

Ripudaman Singh was once accused of playing a role in the bombing of the Air India flight Kanishka in June 1985 by Khalistani terrorists that killed 329 people. Malik was later acquitted of all charges.