Canada-based KLF ordered Shaurya Chakra awardee teacher’s murder in 2020: NIA tells SC amid Trudeau’s charges

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that Canada-based terror outfit Khalistan Liberation Force operatives masterminded the murder of Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a Shaurya Chakra awardee teacher, in Punjab’s Tarn Taran in 2020.

The NIA’s revelation has come at a time when ties between both countries have hit rock bottom after Ottawa alleged Indian government links to the 2023 murder of Canadian citizen and Khalistani movement leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia. India, however, has denied the accusations and blamed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for “playing vote bank politics”.

The NIA has filed an affidavit before the apex court, opposing the bail pleas of two co-accused – Navpreet Singh aka Nav and Harbinder Singh aka Pinder aka Dhillon – in the 2020 murder of Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

It is important to note that Sandhu was shot dead outside his house at Bhikhiwind in Tarn Taran district in October 2020. He was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for fighting against militancy in the state in the 1990s.

The investigation was handed over to NIA in 2021 and as per a report by Times of India, the masterminds behind Sandhu’s killing were Canada-based KLF operative Sunny Toronto and Pakistan-sheltered terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Rode, nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

The duo were named as accused in the NIA chargesheet and were shown as absconders. The anti-terror agency said the duo conspired to eliminate "anti-Khalistan entities in India" as they believed they could revive the Khalistani movement by targeting them.

"The main objective of the Khalistan Liberation Force is to create Khalistan by means of an armed struggle," India Today quoted the NIA affidavit in its report.

“Khalistan Liberation Force leadership believes they can revive the separatist movement by targeting members of specific communities to polarise society in Punjab on communal lines. Organisations and persons, who according to the KLF leadership are opposed to the ideology of Bhindranwale, are their prime targets for elimination,” the ToI report quoted NIA as saying.