Hardeep Singh Nijjar: India’s 'incompetent' campaign against the slain BC Sikh leader

Five years before Hardeep was murdered, sources say Indian officials sent an urgent message to the RCMP claiming India was about to be attacked by a terrorist bomb plot. To stop it, the RCMP needed to arrest immediately. So the RCMP took the BC sick leader into custody. But sources say it quickly became apparent India had no credible evidence against him. So the Mounties released Niger. But India didn’t stop there. India is emboldened. They are becoming a regional powerhouse. And they want to be taken more serious. For almost a decade, Indian officials filed extradition requests and Interpol notices demanding arrest, claiming he was the mastermind behind an armed, sick separatist group planning attacks on India. In 2015, India claimed this video was evidence of organizing a weapons training camp in BC. Sources say the RCMP investigated but found no evidence to support the claim from India’s intelligence agency. I would say they’re not known as a very good intelligence agency. There’s certain countries that Canada knows. You have to take their information with a grain of salt, and some of their evidence was also allegedly obtained through torture. This permanent resident of Canada and friend of Niger’s return to India for his wedding in 2016. He says he was arrested, tortured and later released. But his lawyer says India is not allowing him to return to Canada. There’s a lot of torture. There’s a lot of confessions that are solicited under torture. And India presents these dossiers and expects everyone to act upon them. Canada’s sick community is the largest outside of India and the Indian government has long alleged that Canada is a hotbed of militant calistan separatists, pointing to public campaigning for an independent 6 state in India. And blaming Canada for attacks such as the Air India bombing 40 years ago that killed 329 people, mostly Canadians. There’s a grain of truth in this. If you look back at the Air India, the bombing, Canadian security clearly dropped the ball. There was a massive intelligence failure. The only difference is the threat environment has changed and you don’t have seek extremism. Experts say the six separatist threat in India Today is almost non-existent, but the fight against the Calistan movement abroad plays well politically at home. These assassinations have really burnished Modi’s credentials as someone that’s going to protect India. And it burnished Modi’s image of himself is India’s strongman. The Indian government has fiercely denied playing any role in Niger’s murder and India, meanwhile, is in the midst of an election, with Prime Minister Modi widely expected to win a consecutive third term. Farah Jeff Semple in Surrey, BC Thanks, Jeff.