Sikh youth, Khalistan and the drug trail in Canada

At a time when terrorism as a menace dominates the global security dialogue space with debates and discussions taking place on various strands of terrorism and their relevance in the context of global security, it is interesting to see Canada emerging as a hub of radical Khalistani activities. Canada’s apathetic approach towards Khalistani activities and allowing radical Khalistani elements to remain relevant and discernible
without any hindrance from the state security agencies, has only given boost to generations of young Khalistanis to imbibe radical values and emerge at the forefront of Khalistani activities.
 
The politico-Social matrix in Canada has its own peculiarities with increasing dependency of politicians on certain sections of the Diaspora without any concerns about their background and relevance to any political cause that they may be espousing in a third country. However, in case of the Khalistani movement as one has seen it emerge in Canada, there have been sufficient indicators of the crude radicalization of the movement
taking on an extreme and violent flavor. This trend has not seen any significant shift for the better over the years especially since the gruesome terror incident of the Kanishka bombing on June 23, 1985.  

Bombs placed by Canada-based Khalistanis led to an explosion on board the Air India aircraft killing 329 people, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens and 24 Indian citizens. Canada considers this as the largest
mass killing in Canadian history and the incident was marked by somber events both in Canada and Ireland a few days ago this year in memory of those killed. These events were also a realization for the world to remain sensitive to the threat of terrorism.
 
Significantly, ever since the Kanishka incident, one has seen a steady build up of strong pro-Khalistani sentiments in parts of Canada with a number of prominent Sikh community members taking a lead in promoting the Khalistani agenda.  

It is interesting to note that inspite of the scope and potential for subsequent generations to get absorbed into the fast evolving socio-cultural maze that a country like Canada provides, one has instead seen large number of young members of the Sikh community being drawn in to the Khalistani movement. This should have alerted the Canadian government to clamp down on their activities well in time to prevent them from indulging in any form of violent extremism.
 
Canadian security agencies have nevertheless identified and kept track of the so called `dangerous elements’ within the Sikh community. However, inspite of credible inputs catered by Indian authorities from time to time regarding build up of activities of such elements which could be aimed at undertaking a planned operation against Indian interests, Canadian authorities have generally been adhering to a typically bookish approach of requiring the suspected individuals to be ‘caught in the act’ in order to be detained. Those dealing with terrorism opine that this gap in acquiring and possessing knowledge of a suspected terror activity in the making and to wait for adequate evidence to justify such activity has been the cause of several terror incidents. This `critical gap’ needs to be covered in order to ensure no threat emanates from Canada based Khalistani
activists.

Since terrorism has always been associated with drug peddling and arms running, the apathetic attitude of host governments towards suspected terror entities only tends to encourage several parallel networks to emerge which could spread their tentacles wide across the society. For instance, with Khalistani activities on the rise in Canada, one has seen heightened ISI linkages with most of these entities, including ISI operatives exploiting Khalistani activists to meet their own larger objective that drives on an anti-India plank. There have been instances of Canadian Sikhs visiting Pakistan and third country locations to meet with ISI officers and train with them on carrying out stealth attacks and destructive activities. A large section of the Canadian youth have also been found indulging in drug smuggling and arms peddling with the aim of raising funds for
their activities, thus creating a generation of youth who are able to barely exist on the fringes of the society.
 
In this connection, the Toronto police announced its largest ever international drug takedown on June 22 which included more than 1000 kgs of drugs and $ 966,000 in cash. Around 20 people were detained during the raids. In a meticulously planned operation that began in November 2020, Canadian authorities monitored the movement of drugs from Mexico into California and then on to Canada on tractor trailers. Canadian police seized 444 kgs of Cocaine, 157 kgs of crystal meth, 427 kgs of marijuana and 300 Oxyvodone pills. Most significantly, of the 20 persons detained in connection with the drug bust, 9 are Sikhs based in Canada.  

The names as announced by the Canadian authorities are as follows : Gurbaksh Singh Grewal (Brampton), Amarbir Singh Sarkaria (Caledon), Harbaljit Singh Toor (Caledon), Harwinder Bhullar (Caledon), Sarjant Singh
Dhaliwal (Kitchener), Gurveer Dhaliwal (Kitchener), Gurmanpreet Grewal (Kitchener), Sukhwant Brar (Brampton) and Parminder Gill (Brampton). Most of them are from areas
which are known for heightened Khalistani activites.
 
Though no links have yet been established between the detained individuals and Khalistani activities, at the same time one has noticed increasing role of radical Khalistani activists in drug smuggling at the behest of the ISI in the past. The ISI pursues a traditional strategy with entities such as the Khalistani movement by creating a fund raising platform that could sustain such radical activities. In one of the biggest narcotics haul in June 2019, the Indian customs department seized 532 kg of heroin worth Rs 2,700 crores, which was smuggled into India on board a truck through the Attari border.
 
Investigations led to suspected links with Germany-based Gurmeet Singh Bagga, who emerged as a common link in the narco-terror network through which drugs and funds for terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India were being pushed into from Pakistan.
 
In another incident in December 2019, the arrest of drug smugglers of an international gang operating from Canada, Jalandhar and Australia led investigative agencies to connect the dots between these smugglers and the Khalistan movement.
 
Nine members of the gang, including some foreigners, had been arrested from different parts of North India, including Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand and UP. Five of them were Indians, of whom two were from Jalandhar, according to a statement put out by the Narcotics Control Bureau. According to investigative agencies, the racket was run by Canadian and Australian nationals of Indian origin based in Canada and Australia. At
least some of them were suspected to be part of the Khalistan movement active in Canada.

Canada thus would have to remain more alert to developments within the Sikh community in order to identify and check any disturbing trends on the Khalistani front. A massive de-radicalisation program needs to be initiated in order to ensure that the youth remain unscathed by the negative drift prevalent in parts of the community.
 
Understanding the inherent dynamics of the Khalistan movement and keeping close watch on so called `dangerous’ elements would have to remain as priority for Canadian
security agencies.