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According to sources, the Justin Trudeau government in Canada is under pressure not to open a full fledged probe against Dalla.
Khalistani terrorist Arshdeep Dalla was involved in a shootout and Canadian police have CCTV evidence, sources said. He has been detained. (IMAGE: X)
The detention of Khalistani terrorist Arshdeep Dalla in Canada is an eye wash, said top Intelligence sources in India. Dalla, an aide of deceased Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was detained by the Canadian police on Sunday in connection with a shootout.
According to sources, the Justin Trudeau government in Canada is under pressure not to open a full fledged probe against Dalla. Sources say despite an open shootout case against him and CCTV footage available, the Halton Regional Police has reservations against the detention.
Under pressure, the local media there is also not talking about it, sources told CNN-News18. “It is surprising that even after two days, Regional Police has reservations about revealing the case details. Canada is safeguarding the interest of Khalistani Tiger Force terrorists like ISI,” sources said.
“Bringing him to justice is out of question right now due to the current strain in relationship between India and Canada,” sources added.
Arsh Dalla has several cases pending against him in India. He was designated as a terrorist by the Indian government last year.
The cases against Dalla include Sikh activist Gurpreet Singh Hari Nau’s murder on October 9 in Faridkot and the murder of Jaswant Singh Gill murder in Gwalior.
Arsh Dalla’s gang was also allegedly involved in a firing and extortion incident at Zirakpur on October 18, where a businessman was threatened and a poster with Arsh Dalla’s name was found.
The police have also found that he was involved in at least four targeted killings which were aimed at prominent individuals in major cities in India.
Meanwhile, Punjab Police on Sunday apprehended two key operatives of Arsh Dalla’s gang. They were allegedly involved in the murder of another individual in Madhya Pradesh. They were arrested during a joint operation of the state special operation cell, the anti-gangster task force and Faridkot Police, the Punjab director-general of police Gaurav Yadav said.
Delhi Police last year said Dalla has links with international terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
He is a key member of the extremist groups Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). He lives in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada with his wife and a minor daughter.
Dalla became active in 2020, primarily focused on funding, organising terror cells, facilitating weapons smuggling across the border and orchestrating targeted killings in Punjab.
He, along with Nijjar, is said to have formed a three-member KTF module responsible for the 2021 killing of Tejinder, aka Pinka, the owner of Sunshine Clothes Store in Moga. In 2022, they teamed up again to create a four-person KTF module to execute grenade attacks. Nijjar was murdered outside a gurdwara in British Columbia in June 18 last year.
Dalla also intended to carry out killings of RSS and religious leaders in Punjab at the behest of the ISI and the LeT, a Delhi Police chargesheet filed last year says.
He left India in July 2020 and holds a passport issued by the Jalandhar Regional Passport Office, valid until August 31, 2027.