Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, on Tuesday, dismissed the claims of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there was an Indian hand in the murder of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer outside a Surrey Gurdwara in June this year.

Capt Amarinder said the murder was the result of a factional feud within the management of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Surrey in Canada.

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The former Punjab chief minister said Trudeau had unfortunately walked into a trap owing to vote-bank politics and put at stake the diplomatic relationship between India and Canada.

He said it was highly irresponsible for the prime minister of a country to make a statement without any evidence only because he was playing to the vote-bank gallery.

He said it was an irrefutable fact that the Trudeau administration in Canada had given a free hand to anti-India forces in that country. Indian missions there were attacked and diplomats intimidated but there was no corrective action by the Canadian government.

“Has the Canadian government taken any action against the culprits who attacked Indian missions there,” he asked, adding, Trudeau by leveling such allegations was only trying to deflect the attention from his own failures to curb anti-India activities in that country.

Capt Amarinder said he had brought it to Trudeau’s notice as to how Canadian land was being used against India. When he met Trudeau during his Indian visit in 2018, in an Amritsar hotel, he had shared all the information with him. Instead of seeing the Canadian government taking any remedial measures, there was an increase in anti-India activities in that country.

The former CM said, the reason he had refused to meet the then Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan during his India visit was he (Sajjan) was associated with the World Sikh Organisation which had a record of working against India.

He appreciated the government of India’s decision to expel a Canadian diplomat for his involvement in encouraging anti-India activities.