TeaHey, they want to kill me, they want to live my life.” rap runs requiem, “Opposition people are talking on the phone, hey, will this put me, my brothers in the wrong light.” The music and symbolism takes place straight out of the streets of Chicago or London: the men are, unmistakably, ethnic Punjabi. First composed for Gvinder Grewal, the head of the Brothers Keeper gang killed by hit-man Eken Enigbo, the song was played during the revenge killing of his rival, Randeep Kang.
Last week, thousands attended the funeral Little has been discussed about Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom Indian officials claim was at the center of a terrorist network operating in Punjab, how the Khalistan movement has spawned a brutal gang culture spanning two continents.
Although there have been claims that Nijjar was murdered by India’s intelligence services, giving some suggestions The reasons for this may lie at home: a toxic war for control of well-funded Sikh religious institutions in Canada, waged through increasingly powerful criminal networks.
The fight pitted the millionaire businessman and former terroristRipudaman Malik became a supporter of PM Modi against Nijjar. last year, a few months before Malik mafia style execution By the hitman, Nijjar publicly called his rival a traitor and demanded that he be branded a traitor. taught a lesson, Also Former Partners and Business Associates considered himself a victim From the operations of Malik’s own businesses, Khalsa Credit Union, Satnam Education Trust and Papillon Imports.
Even though we will never know the true motives for the murder, their similarities are startling: Nijjar was shot in the head while he waited in the parking lot—which reflects the circumstances of Malik’s murder.
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The plumber who fought for Khalistan
Landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on 10 February 1997 on a fake passport, identifying himself as “Ravi Sharma”, Nijjar immediately applied for asylum, claiming to be a victim of police harassment. After the arrest of his brother Jatinder Singh, Nijjar claimed that he was repeatedly tortured by the Punjab Police. He bribed officials, got his hair cut and went into hiding at a relative’s house in Uttar Pradesh.
Story, reporter steward bell Writes, not convincing Canadian immigration officials. A medical report that supports Nijjar’s claim of being electrocuted in his “testicles”, [sic.]”The decision the officials made didn’t seem genuine.” And Nijjar’s account didn’t hold together under tough questioning.
Eleven days after his asylum was denied, he filed a new claim, claiming the right to remain in Canada with his new wife, a British Columbia resident. Then, the immigration officials rejected the petition considering it a marriage of convenience. The courts also rejected Nijjar’s appeal. Then, under circumstances that are not entirely clear, Nijjar obtained citizenship after 2001.
In his early years in Canada, Nijjar kept his head down and ran a small plumbing business. However, since 2013, he has increasingly joined pro-Khalistan groups, and traveled to Geneva in 2013 to ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognize the 1984 riots as genocide. The following year, he signed a letter announcing plans to hold a global referendum on Khalistan.
According to Indian police and intelligence services, Nijjar also became involved in terrorism. Officials say his name first cropped up in connection with the investigation into the 2007 Shringar movie theater bomb blast in Ludhiana. that prosecution collapsedThree of the alleged perpetrators were acquitted, and the fourth died while in prison. Some Canadian law-enforcement officials believe that efforts to prosecute Nijjar may have strengthened his asylum claim.
large number terrorism charges However, narratives centered on Nijjar continued to emerge. He was named in an investigation into the bombing of a temple in Patiala, and in 2015 was accused of attempting to assassinate cult leader Piara Singh Bhaniyara, author of a Dalit-centric alternative. Guru Granth Sahib what he said Bhavsagar Granth, Nijjar was also accused of killing another member of the rival sect, Dera Sacha Sauda, in 2015.
Government sources say the Punjab Police and the Intelligence Bureau used links between organized crime groups in Canada to tie up with gangster Arshdeep ‘Arsh Dalla’ Singh to carry out attacks in India. Arshdeep is believed to be living in Canada, where he went missing while traveling in 2017 a tourist visa,
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fundamentalists take on conservatives
Since Nijjar had arrived in Canada, expatriate politics had become increasingly turbulent, with a new generation of young radicals competing with conservatives. The situation worsened in 1996, especially due to the intensity of the temple feud. on whether elderly people should be able to share anchor Community meals were done sitting at chairs and tables, as they would at the McDonald’s across the street, or simply sitting on a long mat on the floor. This practice has been going on for a long time in Gurdwaras across Canada and some Gurdwaras in India.
The table debate turned into a brutal brawl, in which a ceremonial sword was used to cut open one victim’s body and another man was stabbed in the arm. A teenage girl was struck on the head with a kitchen utensil.
Orders issued by right wing Ranjit Singh Jathedar Near the Akal Takht – the institution that believers look to as the ultimate source of their temporal and spiritual authority banned access of chairs In some gurdwaras, such as Ross Street in Vancouver, successful candidates claimed their legitimacy from the will of the Canadian Sikh community.
The hardliners, who had lost the elections, had already taken over the management of the gurdwara several years earlier and started painting the walls with pictures of slain terrorists, including those of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s killers.
Moderate Sikhs like businessman Harmohinder Singh Bains – who had shaved off his beard and preferred cowboy boots – were horrified. Harmohinder Singh Bains said, “It is not a table and chair issue.” Journalist Antony DePalma, “The whole thing is about power, ego and money.”
Similar debates were taking place in the Canadian and United Kingdom diasporas. At one gurdwara, members debated a resolution that would have allowed Sikhs who run small shops selling cigarettes and liquor to join the congregation.
Liberals lost most of the argument. Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal and Balwant Singh Gill, who defied the Akal Takht and arranged anchor The seating arrangement for the elderly and the disabled was outlawed by the Akal Takht. Fifteen years later, he reached the Akal Takht for forgiveness.
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gangs, guns and god
From the mid-1990s, around the same time that the Khalistan debate began to erupt in gurdwaras, a new generation of gangsters of Punjabi origin also began to transform the country’s crime landscape. The brothers Ranjit Singh Dosanjh and Jimsher Singh Dosanjh were among the first to die in gangland wars over control of cocaine distribution. His alleged killer, Bhupinder Singh Johal, became a lifestyle icon for some youths – but he was eventually shot dead outside a nightclub.
a former police officer told Researchers Louis Pagliaro and Anne Marie Pagliaro The Gurudwara had become a tributary of the power-struggle gangs. “It was not uncommon for well-known fanatics to receive praise and blessings from temple priests and senior community leaders during the day and then turn a blind eye at night as the same youths drug peddlers.”
Khalistan provided a language to address the cultural anxieties of a new generation – even though some gang members were personally observant religiously. in fact, like Renu Bakshi saidMany Punjabi gang members came from well-to-do families, which justified their violent behavior as masculine.
Last year, nine of the eleven most dangerous criminals named by police in British Columbia were Ethnic-Punjabi Surname– a shocking number, given only 6.4 per cent of the province’s population identify as a Sikh,
Canadian gangs spawned an ambivalent culture at home as well. Harjeet Mann, Jasdev Singh and Sukhraj Dhaliwal, who were arrested on drug charges in the United States in 2005, were told by residents of their village in Punjab that they were big donors. religious and social events, Gang names often record Punjab village affiliations – Dhak-Duhre, Sanghera, Malhi-Buttar.
The spate of killings of Khalistanis in recent weeks raises obvious questions about possible Indian state involvement – but also the possibility that at least some of the killings are linked to the fratricidal gang-world genocide. Harvinder Singh ,Rinda’ died of a drug overdose in Lahore. Harmeet Singh, also known as ‘Happy PhD’, was also shot dead after a narcotics deal busted in Lahore. Paramjit Singh Pajwar was assassinated by gunmen outside his home in the Sun Flower Housing Society in Lahore.
like nijjar, scholar Ajay Sawhney saidEach of these men was engaged in gun-running, drug-trafficking and extortion – enterprises that provided motive to many would-be assassins, well beyond India’s intelligence services.
The writer is National Security Editor, ThePrint. He tweeted @praveenswami. Thoughts are personal.
(Editing by Anurag Choubey)