On Wednesday (September 20), a video of the slain Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar eulogising the killers of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, General Arun Kumar Vaidya and Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh went viral on social media.
In the video, Nijjar was heard saying, “The same Indira Gandhi who attacked (conducted Operation Blue Star) was assassinated and put on a spaceship on 31st October. General Singh Vadiya, who attacked the Akal Takht (Golden Temple) with his forces and thought of himself as a great commander, was put on a spaceship in Pune.”
He further said, “Lalit Makhen, who was also involved in the 1984 riots, was put on a spaceship by Jinda and Sukha. The butcher, Punjab CM Beant Singh, who vowed to remove turban from the heads of Sikhs was also eliminated in bombing attack and put on a spaceship by Dilawar, Tara and Hawara. This is our legacy.”
The video was shared by anti-Khalistani activist Puneet Sahani on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “This is what Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar would exhort from Khalistani Gurdwaras! Assassinating Indian PM, Chief of Army Staff, Sikh CM of Punjab…being a human bοmb etc is proud legacy of their movement!”
The development came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed Nijjar as a Canadian citizen, who was supposedly killed by Indian security agencies on Canadian soil. He had also expelled a top Indian diplomat, thus prompting a full-fledged diplomatic standoff with India.
Nijjar, who was killed on June 18 this year in Surrey by unidentified gunmen, was granted Canadian citizenship in 2007 despite his involvement in immigration fraud and open allegiance to the cause of secession and terrorism.
He also attacked the ‘Ekta Yatra’ led by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi from Punjab to Delhi in January 1992. A total of 4 BJP workers were killed while 19 others were injured. Gurdeep Singh Deepa Heran Wala also attacked police officers and CRPF personnel and killed one person every 9th day.
Anti-India activities of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Nijjar ran a plumbing business in Surrey. He travelled to Geneva in 2013 to appeal to the UNHRC to recognize the 1984 anti-Sikh violence as a genocide. In what capacity, with whose backing or sponsorship did he manage to reach to a global institution like the UNHRC is worth thinking about.
In June 2014, Nijjar openly called for the separation of the Indian state of Punjab at the UN Headquarters. Five months later, in November 2014, India issued a warrant for Nijjar’s arrest through the Interpol’s National Central Bureau in New Delhi.
The warrant described him as a “mastermind/active member” of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terrorist group. The warrant also mentioned that Nijjar’s name had surfaced following the 2007 bombing of the Shingar Cinema in Punjab.
According to the summary of the case, the suspects arrested for the blast confessed that they were “acting under the instructions of Hardeep Singh Nijjar”.
In 2016, a second Interpol notice made fresh allegations against Nijjar, calling him the “mastermind and key conspirator of many terrorist acts in India”.
He was wanted for acts of terrorism and recruitment and fundraising and faced a possible life sentence. Nijjar denied the charges in a letter to Canadian PM Trudeau calling them “baseless and fabricated”.
Moreover, in March 2019, Nijjar was charged with assault but the case was stayed the same December.
Nijjar was also embroiled in a dispute over a commercial printing press which he had taken from Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted of involvement in the deadly 1985 Air India bombings.
The machine was purchased by Malik and a partner who intended to use it to print Sikh scriptures. Malik handed over the press to Nijjar in November 2020 “for safekeeping”.
But Nijjar refused to return it. Malik was murdered in July 2022. A lawsuit then followed in February 2023 seeking the return of the equipment.