New Delhi, June 21 (UNI) India on Friday slammed the move of the Canadian parliament of observing a one-minute silence in the memory of slain Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and said New Delhi “opposes any moves giving political space to extremism and those advocating violence”.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, answering questions in his media briefing, also said that India has strongly protested with the Canadian High Commission here over a so-called citizen’s court held outside the Indian Consulate General in Vancouver where PM Modi was shown behind bars and being “tried” in court.
“We naturally oppose any moves giving political space to extremism and those advocating violence… The question of political space being given to people who advocate violence and anti-India agenda is the real problem (in Canada), and therefore we have time and again been insisting that the Canadian authorities take action against them,” he said.
On the issue of the so-called citizen’s court held by Khalistani activists on Tuesday, he said:
“We have strongly protested with the Canadian High Commission here. Such courts or such gatherings are not helpful at all; it undermines, and we have strongly taken it up with them and told them to take action as appropriate in the matter,” he said.
Pro-Khalistani Sikhs marked the anniversary of the killing of Nijjar in British Columbia by holding a mock murder trial for Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver.
The mock trial included a jury made up of actors and a judge in a curly white wig, who invited the “prosecutor” to present evidence of PM Modi’s involvement in the killing of Nijjar in Surrey last year.
An effigy of PM Modi, dressed in prison stripes, was paraded down the street in a makeshift cage before the mock trial began on Tuesday.
Ties between India and Canada have nosedived following Canada’s active backing of Khalistani elements.
The Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had sparked a controversy in September last year when he told parliament that Canadian security agencies had been actively pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link” between agents of the Government of India and the killing of Nijjar.
India has rejected the claims and called the allegations as “absurd and motivated.”
Four Indian nationals have been arrested by Ottawa and charged with murder in the case of the killing of Nijjar.
