A sikh extremist invited to an event with Trudeau: his trip to india is even more complicated

AFP

AFP

Thursday, 22-feb-2018 07:32

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Thursday, 22-feb-2018 07:37

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Already tarnished by the coldness of the home authorities, travel in India, Justin Trudeau is still spoiled on Thursday with the discovery of an invitation to a sikh extremist.

Canadian diplomacy has cancelled at the last moment the invitation of Jaspal Atwal at a dinner chaired by the canadian prime minister on Thursday evening. A odd who falls ill while Mr. Trudeau is trying to counter the perception in New Delhi that it saves the separatist movements sikhs in Canada, for electoral reasons.

“We take this situation extremely seriously. The individual in question should never have been invited,” said the canadian leader to the press on the sidelines of a business conference in the indian capital.

The parliamentary origin of this invitation “has assumed, and will assume full responsibility for his actions”, he added.

Jaspal Atwal was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder in 1986 in Canada to a man of indian politics in the context of the separatist struggle in Punjab, according to media reports indians and canadians.

The sikhs constitute a significant community of half a million people in Canada, within which there is a fringe of support for the movement of Khalistan. The latter calls for independence in the indian region of Punjab (north), the land of sikhism, and has waged a fierce insurgency, finally crushed in the 1990s.

The indian press was Thursday, his revel in of this invitation. Even before this incident, the daily Hindustan Times felt already that the visit of Mr. Trudeau making a turn to the “nightmare of public relations”, a prominent university indian up to evoke “one of the worst disasters diplomatic in India” in the last twenty years.

Jaspal Atwal was a member of the international Federation of sikh youth, a separatist organisation that has been banned in India and in Canada. During the visit to india of Mr. Trudeau, owner of a canadian passport is said to have attended an official reception in Bombay, where a photo shows it next to the wife of the head of government.

“We do not comment on matters related to the security of the prime minister,” said the canadian High commission in New Delhi.

Arrived on Saturday in India for a week, Justin Trudeau has tried to dispel the feeling of unease around his trip, which no indian leader of the first plan has not been met.

During a stop Wednesday in Punjab, the Canadian 46-year-old has assured the chief minister of this State that his government did not support the small groups of separatists, but failed, to extinguish the controversy.

Mr. Trudeau will meet finally with the prime minister Narendra Modi in the indian capital on Friday.