Canadian minister Harjit Sajjan prioritised Afghan Sikhs over citizens as Kabul fell — Globe and Mail

New Delhi: Former defence minister of Canada Harjit Sajjan is reported to have instructed Canadian special forces to rescue Afghan Sikhs after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, taking resources away from getting Canadian citizens out of Afghanistan.

Citing unnamed sources from the military, Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Sajjan relayed information on the location of around 225 Sikhs in Afghanistan for evacuation. The operation was conducted in the last few days of the western nation’s evacuation of personnel from the central Asian country, days after the Taliban captured Kabul on 15 August 2021, ending the nearly two-decade war against the militant movement.

“The sources said Afghan Sikhs were not considered an operational priority for the Canadian military as they had no link to Canada. Mr. Sajjan’s intervention, the sources say, impacted the rescue of Canadians and other Afghans on Canada’s priority list,” reported the Canadian daily.

Sajjan, who is currently the minister of emergency preparedness in the Justin Trudeau cabinet, denied the allegations and called it “utter BS” in a statement to the media Thursday.

“Let me address The Globe article quite directly, because I will be quite honest with you, it was utter BS. Those who were following on the evacuation missions and the events previously to that, know quite well that there was an approved government policy to safely evacuate as many vulnerable Afghans as possible,” he said.

The minister described the policy as one that “included obviously Canadians first, those who worked with us like our interpreters and it also included vulnerable Afghans, which included religious minorities like Afghan Sikhs and Hindus”.

According to the newspaper, members of the Canadian military were angered by Sajjan’s instructions, especially in the last 24 hours of its mission of evacuating people out of Afghanistan. The Canadian mission was sent to the country after the fall of Kabul and was slated to end on 27 August 2021.

The mission by the Canadian Special Forces failed to rescue the 225 Sikhs from a gurdwara in Kabul. A few months after the failed rescue operation, the Afghan Sikhs were eventually evacuated to India. However, an estimated 120 Afghan Sikhs, who were evacuated to India, moved to Canada later, while another 17 left for the US, as reported by ThePrint earlier.

Sajjan also criticised the coverage, saying he is being singled out for being a Sikh and that if he “did not wear a turban no one would question whether my actions were appropriate,” according to The Globe and Mail.

The day Kabul fell, a writ of election was issued by the Governor General of Canada Mary Simon. Sikh Canadians are considered an important constituent of the Liberal Party (Trudeau’s party) voting bloc.

The news of Sajjan’s instructions has created another headache for the Trudeau government, with opposition parties calling for the House of Commons to hold hearings on the same.

According to Canadian local media, former Leader of the Conservative Party Erin O’Toole called for an inquiry Thursday. The Bloc Québécois, another opposition party, said it will propose a motion to hold hearings on the decisions made by Sajjan during the fall of Kabul, later this year.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)Also read: Trudeau talks of engaging with Modi even as Canadian Parliament holds moment of silence for Nijjar