Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 19: Canada-based banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, one of the most-wanted terrorists in India who carried a cash reward of ₹ 10 lakh on his head, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Canada, officials here said on Monday.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants outside the premises of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Surrey, in the western Canadian province of British Columbia at around 6 am IST Monday (8.30 pm on June 18, Sunday, Canadian time).
The Gurdwara was being presided by Nijjar himself for the past four years, giving rise to speculation that funds from the shrine were being embezzled for funding terror activities in Punjab. A resident of Bharsinghpur village in Punjab’s Jalandhar, Nijjar was found dead inside a car with bullet wounds in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib.
Quoting preliminary information, the officials said Nijjar was shot by two unidentified assailants and died on the spot. When his body was being moved from the scene by the Canadian police, a group of Sikhs raised pro-Khalistan and anti-India slogans, according to the officials.
Nijjar was one of the most-wanted terrorists in India for his alleged involvement in terror activities in the country. In July last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward of ₹10 lakh on information leading to Nijjar’s arrest in connection with an attack on a Hindu priest in Jalandhar in 2021.
The reward announcement came nearly three weeks after the NIA filed a charge sheet against him and three others in connection with the attack. According to the NIA, Nijjar was also promoting the secessionist and violent agenda of pro-Khalistan group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ in India.
Nijjar was designated a ‘terrorist’ by India under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in July 2020 and his property in the country was attached by the NIA in September 2020.
Interpol Red Corner Notice was also issued against him in 2016. The local police of Surrey had also put Nijjar under house arrest temporarily in 2018 on suspicion of his terror involvement but he was released later.
The killing is the latest instance of terror kingpins being targeted outside India. In May, another wanted Khalistani terrorist Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while he was out for a morning walk near his residence in Lahore, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Panjwar, 63, was heading the Khalistan Commando Force-Panjwar group and was also designated as a terrorist by India under the UAPA in July 2020.
Nijjar had a long tryst with Khalistan militancy since migrating to Canada in 1995. Initially, an operative of Babbar Khalsa, he was involved in some of the most high-profile terror cases of the first decade of the millennium including the Shingar Cinema bomb blast (Ludhiana, 2007) and the assassination of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat President Rulda Singh (Patiala, 2009).
He was introduced to Pakistan-based fugitive KTF supremo Jagtar Singh Tara, now incarcerated in India, in 2011 and switched to the newly formed KTF. He kept on meeting Tara in Pakistan in the annual jathas, during which he was allegedly trained in the fabrication of IEDs and handling of high-end guns.
Nijjar also funded Tara handsomely from Canada and financed his shifting of base from Pakistan to Thailand in 2014, officials said. When Tara was facing deportation from Thailand in late 2014, Nijjar made frantic efforts to stop it, making multiple rounds of Thailand and Pakistan.
The next year, Nijjar trained three Sikh youths in handling AK-47 and Russian sniper guns in the hilly terrain of Mission City, British Columbia before sending them to India for targeting some senior police officials and popular Dera leaders, officials alleged.
After a hiatus of about half a decade, Nijjar again made headlines with the surfacing of his name in multiple terror cases in quick succession including the killing of Dera follower Manohar Lal Arora (November 2020) and former Sarpanch of village Udhampur (Ropar) Avtar Singh (December 2021) and attempted killing of Bharsinghpur village priest Pragya Gyan Muni (January 2021).
Nijjar was learnt to have formed an alliance with fellow Surrey-based Punjabi gangster Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dala and off late delved into organised financial crimes both in Punjab and in Canada in order to finance his terror plans, they said. This latest venture had reportedly made Nijjar a target of the warring criminal gangs operational in Surrey-Delta area.
Since early 2019, Nijjar was roped in by the US-based “Sikhs For Justice” (SFJ) leadership to steer its so-called ‘Referendum 2020’ campaign in Canada. Since then, Nijjar had remained a constant face in the SFJ-sponsored demonstrations and car rallies in the Surrey-Vancouver area.
He was often seen desecrating the Indian national flag outside the Indian Consulate of Vancouver on days of national significance to India. Nijjar also played a prominent role in the ‘Referendum voting’ in Brampton and Mississauga (Ontario) last year, they said.
Recently, a prominent pro-Khalistani activist Avtar Singh Purba alias Khanda, who was involved in the attack on the Indian High Commission in London, died at a hospital in the city of Birmingham last week after a prolonged illness. Sikh Federation UK said Avtar Singh was terminally ill with blood cancer.
Wanted in connection with the conspiracy to kill Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and senior advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains, Avtar Singh was allegedly involved in terrorist activities in the UK and had joined the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) remnants active in Britain and other countries.
Several other terrorists have been gunned down in recent months. In February this year, Bashir Ahmad Peer, a self-styled commander of the terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi. Also in the same month, former commander of Pakistan-based terror outfit Al Badr, Syed Khalid Raza, was killed in a similar manner outside his residence in Karachi while Kashmir-born terrorist Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, who had joined the Islamic State IS), was reportedly killed in Kunar province of Afghanistan.