India has "strongly protested" the so-called citizens' court' held at the Indian Consulate in Vancouver to mark the death anniversary of designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson revealed during a regular briefing in New Delhi on Friday.
"We have strongly protested with the Canadian High Commissioner here. Such courts or such a gathering is not helpful at all. It undermines... We have strongly taken it up with them and told them to take appropriate action in the matter," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated.
Nijjar, allegedly linked to a banned terrorist group Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was shot dead by an undefined man in Surrey, British Columbia on 18 June last year. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has linked Nijjar's killing to "agents" of the Indian government, though Ottawa provided no evidence on the matter.
The same day, Canadian Parliament observed a "moment of silence" in the House of Commons in Nijjar's memory.
Reacting to Canadian Parliament's tribute to Nijjar, the MEA spokesperson said that India had been consistently opposed to "giving political space to extremism and those advocating violence".
Further, Jaiswal underscored once again that Khalistan activities in Canada were a "matter of serious concern" for India.
"We have been repeatedly calling upon the government of Canada to take action. We have said that political space provided to extremist anti-India elements and those advocating violence must stop and they must take action," the Indian official stated.
The remarks by the MEA come ahead of the 39th anniversary of the bombing of Air India flight 182 'Kanishka' by pro-Khalistan terrorists in on 23 June1985.
The mid-air bombing of the flight operating on Montreal-London-India route left all 329 passengers aboard dead. This case is considered to be the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history to this day.
The Indian Embassy and consulates in Canada have organised memorials in major cities to mark the flight bombing incident.
Meanwhile, during a conversation with Sputnik India, Pro-Khalistan separatists were one of the most effective 'tools' of the collective West to exert pressure on India, Colonel RSN Singh, Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing's (R&AW) former operative said that pro-Khalistan radicals were one of the most effective 'tools' of the Western countries to deploy pressure on India.