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Pro-Khalistan elements based in Canada have been luring gullible Sikh youth to the North American country by sponsoring their visa with the sole objective of using them to carry out their agenda on Canadian soil, sources said on Wednesday.
The sources said Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing has led to a row between India and Canada, and other individuals like Moninder Singh Bual, Parminder Pangli, Bhagat Singh Brar have been using the lured Sikh youth to carry out their pro-Khalistan agenda from Canadian soil.
However, they faced shortage of foot soldiers due to lack of support in the diaspora.
This 'demand and supply matrix' was exploited by pro-Khalistan extremists in Canada who came out with a novel idea of sponsoring gullible Sikh youth from Punjab for medium-skilled jobs like plumber, truck drivers or religious work like 'Sewadars' and 'Pathis' and 'Ragis' in gurdwaras controlled by them.
These pro-Khalistan extremists sponsor visas of such Punjabi youth and visits to Canada in lieu of exploiting them for doing pro-Khalistan activities in Canada like participating in anti-India protests and programmes and conducting radical-religious congregations, sources said.
After that, they identify and spot Indian youth and students in Canada who are finding it difficult to sustain themselves and need support in terms of sundry jobs and shelter.
Illegal immigrants in Canada and students, who have complete their studies in Canada but have not been able to find suitable jobs, are the most susceptible. Pro-Khalistan extremists offer them shelter and low scale jobs for sustenance using gurdwara resources, they said.
These 'indebted' youth join 'the Khalistan brigade in Canada' willingly or unwillingly.
When Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)-backed Khalistani group 'Sikhs For Justice' was finding difficult to get support for its anti-India campaign 'Punjab Independence Referendum', Nijjar and his friends used these 'foot soldiers' to give an impression that their campaign was successful, the sources said.
It is easier for these pro-Khalistan extremists to now get more and more such people as they control over 30 gurdwaras in Surrey, Brampton, Edmonton etc.
Nijjar, Bual and Brar also formed an 'unholy nexus' with gangsters in Punjab like Davinder Bambhia gang, Arsh Dalla gang, Lakhbir Landa gang and brought these wanted gangsters to Canada in lieu of using their operatives in Punjab for terror attacks, sources said.
Some pro-Khalistan political parties in India charged one to two lakh rupees for giving 'letter' to youth, who use it for seeking political asylum in Canada after falsely claiming that they were party cadres and being persecuted in India on religious grounds, they said.
Such youth invariably end up joining the pro-Khalistan elements on reaching Canada.
Any genuine traveller to Canada knows that getting Canadian visa is extremely difficult and time consuming.
This 'human trafficking' channel run by pro-Khalistan extremists remains undisrupted under the very nose of Canadian agencies, even though the North American country overtly may be very sensitive to human trafficking, the sources said.
The row between New Delhi and Ottawa erupted after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 18 alleged the 'potential' involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar's killing in June.
India strongly rejected the allegations as 'absurd' and 'motivated' and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.