standoff with Canada<\/a>, following allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India may have been involved in the killing in British Columbia of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian who was a vocal advocate of Khalistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIndia, which has strenuously denied Trudeau\u2019s claims, has previously accused Nijjar of being a terrorist with links to the Khalistan movement and of \u201ctrying to radicalize the Sikh community across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it has long accused multiple foreign countries of harboring what it describes as Sikh militants within their diaspora communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NIA said Wednesday the latest raids \u201crelate to conspiracies of targeted killings, terror funding of pro-Khalistan outfits, extortion, etc. by the gangsters, many of whom are lodged in various jails or are operating from various foreign countries, including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia, Portugal and Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany of the criminals and gangsters who were earlier leading gangs in India have fled abroad in recent years and are now pursuing their terror and violence related activities from there, as per NIA investigations,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese criminals have been engaged in planning and commissioning serious crimes, including contract and revenge killings, in association with criminals lodged in jails across India,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operation spanned the states of Punjab, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand, and also included the union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New Delhi has responded angrily to Trudeau\u2019s claims and the deepening spat has seen both nations expel senior diplomats in reciprocal moves, raising the prospect of an awkward rift between key partners of the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things escalated further when India suspended visa services for Canadian citizens over what it said were \u201csecurity threats\u201d against diplomats in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Modi is yet to speak publicly about the growing dispute, Indian authorities last week announced an \u201cintensified crackdown\u201d on what it says is a \u201cKhalistani terrorist campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, the NIA promised a cash reward for five individuals who they accuse of \u201cspreading terror\u201d in the state of Punjab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN: India\u2019s anti-terror agency has raided 53 sites across seven states and union territories in a crackdown on what it says are \u201cterrorists\u201d and \u201cgangsters,\u201d some of whom it alleges have links to Sikh separatist groups. The National Investigative Agency (NIA) said Wednesday it had seized pistols, ammunition and a large number of digital devices during the raids, and that among those it had detained were several people with suspected links to \u201cpro-Khalistan\u201d groups. \u201cKhalistan\u201d is a reference to a separatist movement that seeks to create a homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region of India. News of the raid… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35189,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35187\/revisions\/35189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}