With Canada being seen as going ‘soft’ on Khalistani extremists amid strained relations with India, the pro-Khalistan radicals in India’s Punjab and outside could get spurred on, even as the movement finds little support in Punjab, yet the demand keeps resurfacing by minuscule sections of Sikh diaspora abroad.
Observers of the State’s politics and law and order situation fear that if Canada allows anti-India activities by radical pro-Khalistan elements in the name of freedom of expression, then it is but natural for these extremists to get emboldened, which is dangerous for Punjab that shares an International border with a hostile nation — Pakistan.
Punjab went through a traumatic phase of militancy between the mid-1980s and early-1990s over the demand for Khalistan, a proposed ethno-religious sovereign land for the Sikhs, which saw the killing of tens of thousands of people.
