Khalistanis increase vulnerability of Indian diplomats

The difficulty of protecting diplomats abroad was evident as early as 1961, long before terrorism and extremism became hazards for them. In April that year, a naturalised citizen of Canada, originally from Yugoslavia, shot dead K Shankar Pillai, First Secretary of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa, in his office. He was upset that he had been denied a visa and work permit to India.

The sudden upsurge in Khalistani activities in Canada, in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and in Australia is being linked by some to several mysterious incidents in which extremist Sikh radicals have been killed. A so-called retaliatory ‘Kill India’ campaign has been launched by Khalistanis targeting Indian diplomats by publishing their pictures on the campaign’s posters which call for attacks on India.

The campaign suggests that the Indian intelligence agencies are playing by the Israeli playbook in hunting down wanted terrorist fugitives from India. The Khalistan ‘movement’, which exists almost entirely in the Sikh diaspora, has seen deaths or killing of four of its top leaders in the last six months. They include: Khalistan Tiger Force chief Harmeet Singh Nijjar shot dead in Canada on June 19, Khalistan Commando Force chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar killed in Lahore on May 6, Sikhs for Justice leader Avtar Singh Khanda who ostensibly died of cancer in a UK hospital last month, and a narco-terrorism accused Khalistan exponent, Harmeet Singh alias Happy PhD, who was shot in Lahore in 2020.

Nijjar has been described by the rabble-rousing legal advisor and spokesperson of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as his “younger brother”. He was believed to be the head of the SFJ in Canada. Pannun is accusing Indian intelligence agencies of killing Nijjar. Khanda’s supporters believe his recent death was suspicious although he had developed blood cancer. “We will avenge his death,” Pannun has told the media regarding Nijjar. He has since organised anti-India protests outside Indian missions. By putting the photographs of diplomats on posters and falsely calling them ‘the faces of Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killers’, he has in effect turned them into targets.

The Khalistanis are not new to targeting diplomats. In October 1991, four terrorists of the Khalistan Liberation Force kidnapped the Romanian Charge d'affaires Liviu Radu while he was going to office from his Jor Bagh residence in Delhi. They demanded the release of Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhjinder Singh Sukha, who were later hanged for assassinating General A S Vaidya, the former Chief of the Army Staff. After 49 days they were forced to release him.

Other than Khalistani terrorists, in the last six months several Kashmiri extremists have also been mysteriously killed by gunmen in Pakistan where they were sheltered. They include: Hijb-ul-Mujahideen founding commander Bashir Ahmad Peer on February 20, former commander of terror group Al Badr Syed Khalid Raza on February 26, and recruiter for Kashmiri terrorist organisations Syed Noor Shalobar on March 3. On March 1, 2022, Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, one of the five hijackers of IC-814 Indian Airlines flight in 1999, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Karachi. If the Pakistani agencies are also convinced that this is the handiwork of India, then they too would want to avenge these incidents by strong action.

The Vienna Convention enjoins that a host country ‘must uphold its obligations to ensure the protection of all diplomatic mission premises and personnel and take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on personnel.’ But it is impossible for the host country to provide security to each functionary of a diplomatic mission. Nor can they go about their duties encumbered by added security. While ambassadors or the high commissioners under threat may be provided additional security by the host country, other members of the diplomatic mission will always be vulnerable going about their daily routines. Recall that on February 3, 1984, Kashmiri militants linked to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) abducted Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham just as he got off the bus carrying a cake for his daughter’s birthday. He was later killed when their ransom demand and release of JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat was not met.

In countries like Afghanistan, where the internal security system itself is in disarray, the host country can often allow greater latitude to diplomatic missions to arrange security for their members. Nevertheless, in 2008, India became a target of jihadi elements in Afghanistan — the needle of suspicion pointed to Pakistan — and two Indian diplomats and two constables of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were killed in a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

It is not sufficient for India to issue a demarche to the countries where Indian missions are being attacked. Whether in Canada or in the UK, unless the local police investigate the mysterious murders and suspected deaths, these threats will continue. They must convince their citizens — Khalistan supporters among them — that they offer a due process of legal retribution and that there is no need to deliver a vengeful and often misguided justice themselves. Those giving calls of ‘Kill India’ and targeting Indian diplomats must be prosecuted under the local law and sent to prison — for that is where they belong. However, if the Indian agencies are involved in these mysterious murders and deaths, then they should know that violence always begets violence.

(Bharat Bhushan is a Delhi-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of DH