Guns, drugs, human trafficking: Sheltered 'Khalistani hardliners' have made business in Canada, says expelled Indian envoy

Calling Canada's behaviour "the pits", India's recalled high commissioner Sanjay Verma says India was back-stabbed and treated in a most unprofessional manner by a country that is supposed to be a friendly democracy.

In an unexpected downturn of relations, Verma was declared a "person of interest" by Canada last week in its investigation into the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who has been declared a Khalistani terrorist by India. Before Canada could take further action, New Delhi recalled Verma and five other diplomats. who were also similarly named.

"This is the pits. This is the most unprofessional approach to a bilateral relation. There are diplomatic tools available in the hands of a diplomat. Those tools could have been used" instead of seeking to interrogate a country's top envoy and other diplomats, Verma said in an interview to PTI Video recorded on Wednesday, his first after returning to India.

Speaking on a wide range of issues at PTI's New Delhi studios, Verma spoke about the genesis of the Khalistani movement in Canada, the support it has been getting from local politicians for electoral gains, and the kind of criminal activities the Khalistanis carry out in order to increase their numbers.

"A child that cries the most gets fed first by the mother. Similarly, even though they are only a handful, they shout the most and get the most attention from Canadian political backers," he said.

Verma said that extreme hard-line Khalistanis are only about 10,000 in number, and supporters amount to perhaps 1 lakh in a Sikh population of about 8 lakhs.

"To get support they intimidate commons Sikhs there, including with threats such as 'we know where your daughter is studying'" Verma said.

"The Khalistanis have made Khalistan into a business in Canada. In the name of Khalistan, they do human trafficking, drug trafficking, gun-running and all. They earn a lot of money through that and also through gurudwaras and they use part of that money for all nefarious jobs," he said.