UN letter names me, India is behind the threats: Canadian Sikh activist

ISLAMABAD: Canadian Sikh activist Moninder Singh says he has no doubt the Indian state is behind repeated threats to his life, days after five UN experts urged Canada to protect him.

Speaking on Pakistan TV Digital's South Speaks with Saqib, head of the Sikh Federation (Canada) said he has received four police warnings of imminent assassination since 2022, with most coinciding with his appearances before United Nations bodies in Geneva.

The UN letter, dated June 3 and made public this week, placed the threats within what it called a broader pattern of transnational repression by Indian authorities against Sikh activists.

"I have no doubt it's India," Singh said, noting he has no criminal record and has never been approached for extortion.

He said the timing points to his advocacy work: "When I'm going there and making statements in the General Assembly, I'm talking about India's human rights record."

Singh said the first duty-to-warn notices issued to Sikh activists in Canada went to him and Hardeep Singh Nijjar on the same day in July 2022.

Nijjar was shot dead outside a Surrey gurdwara eleven months later, a killing then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attributed to agents of the Indian government.

Outlining what he called an escalating pattern, Singh said Indian pressure on diaspora activists begins with visa refusals, blacklisting and harassment of relatives in Punjab, and can extend to violence carried out through criminal proxies.

On jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, whose network Canadian police have linked to violence in Canada, Singh said he viewed him as expendable.

"Lawrence Bishnoi is one head on the hundred-headed demon that is India," he said. "That head can be replaced at any time."

Asked what he would say to Indian officials, Singh said: "Get your heads out of the sand and look at what's going on."

He described Canada's warning system as inadequate.

"After the warning, there is no support. There is no security mechanism," he said. "You're basically told that there is a threat to your life. Now you go figure it out."

India has denied all allegations of involvement in threats or killings targeting Sikh activists abroad.