VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A report out of India suggests a man from Surrey has been running a terror training camp near Mission, complete with hours of target practice at a local rifle range, all with the aim of carrying out attacks in the heart of the Sikh homeland.
The Times of India claims Hardeep Nijjar — a Canadian citizen since 1995 — is the operational head of a Sikh separatist group called Khalistan Terror Force and took a number of “Sikh youths recently for AK-47 training in a range near Mission where they were made to fire for four hours daily.”
The Times reports that one of those trainees, Mandeep Singh, was arrested in a foiled terror plot in Ludhiana, India two weeks ago. Nijjar is apparently also wanted in connection with an explosion at a movie theatre in Ludhiana in 2007 that killed six people.
The newspaper claims Indian intelligence has alerted Ottawa about Nijjar and has begun an application for extradition.
Stating this is an operational matter, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he can’t comment on the matter.
“I can just say that whenever there are reports of credible threats, obviously the police and security authorities take that all very seriously and respond appropriately,” he tells us.
Meanwhile, an international security expert expects there may have been some “embellishment” by some of the parties involved.
“There are terrorist activities happening in India — there is staging happening in Pakistan, and sometimes certain claims can be made and it might meet the interests of certain groups that are fighting terrorism. We wouldn’t want to take these kinds of reports at face value,” says independent security consultant David Hyde.
“I’d be doubtful if this story has full veracity, although we do know there are individuals linked to Sikh separatist groups in this country particularly in BC. There are people who are supportive, who are ideologically aligned with these groups, and who are doing fundraising activities but this escalation to a possible terror camp is a bit of a new frontier,” he tells NEWS 1130.
“It’s certainly a claim to be taken seriously, in my view, but I don’t think we have evidence to suggest there is a terror camp per se in Mission or any other area of BC. That would be an escalation in what we’ve seen, historically.”
In regards to what Canada is doing to deal with radicalization on home soil, Minister Goodale said, “In the election platform, we put forward the specific proposal on counter-radicalization. That was funded in the budget and I hope to have that office up and running this summer.”
Mission’s mayor is suggesting people should not be worried about reports out of India that a terror camp is operating in their community.
Randy Hawes feels if the reports were true, the moderate Sikh community would have notified police.
“[People] should relax and not fret this,” says Hawes. “The RCMP, if there’s something going on, and indeed, if it’s terrorism, CSIS, will know about it. At the moment, the RCMP are at least telling me they don’t know about it.
“So I’m not at all concerned, and I don’t think the community should be concerned either. I don’t want to cast aspersion on the Times of India, but in the past, they have carried some stories that weren’t exactly accurate.
“I’m not sure where all of this information comes from, but if the RCMP don’t know about it, and the Sikh community here doesn’t know about it, I would suggest it doesn’t exist.”
Reporter Martin MacMahon joined Tanya Fletcher and Jim Bennie to talk about the issue. You can hear it below.