Wanted Khalistani Terrorist Carrying ₹ 10 Lakh Reward Shot Dead In Canada
New Delhi:
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and one of India’s most-wanted terrorists 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.
Canada-based 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 National Investigation Agency (NIA) in September 2020.
Interpol Red Corner Notice was also issued against him in 2016. The local police of Surrey had also put Nijar 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, a native of village Bhar Singh Pura in Jalandhar, Punjab, 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.