Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Name: Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Aliases: Nijjar

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 11-Oct-1977

Place of Birth: Bhar Singh Pura in Jalandhar district, Punjab

Citizenship: Canada

Current Residence: 12551, 89-A AVE, Surrey, BC-1A9, Canada

Organizational Affiliations: Babbar Khalsa International (BKI),Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF)

Current Position: ‘chief’ of KTF

Criminal Record/Court Cases/Charges:

A native of harsinghpur in Jalandhar District, Nijjar is currently based in Surrey, Canada. He reportedly worked as a plumber and according to media reports, he was elected unopposed to head the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara in Surrey, Canada. He has visited Pakistan in 2013-14 to meet with Jagtar Singh Tara of KTF, who was arrested from Thailand in 2015, and Pakistan’s ISI. He also organized a training camp for Khalistani militants in Missigen Hills in British Colombia in December 2015 in which small arms training was imparted. Nijjar is actively involved in training KTF militants and operationalizing them in India.Some reports also indicate that Nijjar along with another Canadian resident, Mandeep Singh was working to revive Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) by injecting funds into the organization.

In 2010, Punjab Police had filed a FIR against Nijjar for his involvement in an explosion near Satya Narayan temple in Patiala. Separately, in 2015 another FIR was filed against him for plotting to kill religious leaders. Later in 2016 another FIR was filed for organizing training camp in Canada in December 2015. A Look out Circular (LOC) and a Red Corner Notice (RCN) were also lodged against him in 2015 and 2016. Although Canadian authorities had briefly detained him in April 2018, he was released without any charges being filed.

Dateline

Incident Date	Incident	Civilian Killed	Military Killed	Security Force Killed	Civilian Injured	Military Injured	Security Force Injured	Civilian Abducted	Military Abducted	Security Force Abducted
01-Jun-2021	Punjab Police arrested a suspected Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) operative, who they believe was one of the main shooters involved in the murder of a follower of the Dera Sacha Sauda and the attempted murder of a priest, identified as Kamaljeet Sharma along with four .315 bore pistols with 10 live cartridges from near village Nathuwala Jadid in Moga District. Earlier, Police arrested two of his associates Lovepreet Singh and Ram Singh from Moga on May 22. Police claim the trio had been found acting on the directions of KTF’s Canada based chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who has been notified as a ‘designated terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the central government.
22-May-2021	Punjab Police arrested two operatives of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), identified as Lovepreet Singh alias Ravi and Ram Singh alias Sonu from the rear side of Senior Secondary School near railway crossing Mehna in Moga district on May 22. The duo allegedly involved in several heinous crimes in the last one year, including the murder of a sect follower and firing on a priest. They were acting on the directions of KTF’s Canada-based chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose name incidentally figured in the list of Khalistani operatives that was handed over by Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the latter’s visit to India in 2018. With their arrest, police also foiled a plan to kill another sect follower, who they were targeting to take revenge in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege cases. Three 0.32 bore pistols with 38 live cartridges and one 0.315 bore pistol with 10 live cartridges, along with two magazines, were also recovered from the suspects. The DGP Dinkar Gupta disclosed that “Besides, Nijjar, three of their other KTF’s co-conspirators, identified as Arshdip, Ramandip and Charanjit alias Rinku Bihla, are hiding out in Surrey (BC) Canada, while one, Kamaljeet Sharma alias Kamal, is still absconding.” He said while Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh and Ramandeep Singh alias Raman Judge went to Canada legally in 2019 and 2017 respectively, Charanjit Singh alias Rinku Bihla had gone there illegally in around 2013-14. The DGP also said investigations were in progress to unravel further links of the accused and trace other previous crimes in which they might have been involved.
01-Jul-2020	Government of India declared nine individuals, including pro-Khalistani leader and the key member of banned outfit Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act [UAPA]. Pannun, who organized the Khalistan 2020 referendum, has been seen actively running a campaign against India and motivating Sikh youngsters in his home state of Punjab to join militancy. The others who have been designated by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) as individual terrorists under the UAPA include Paramjit Singh (Babbar Khalsa International), Hardeep Singh Nijjar (Khalistan Tiger Force), Gurmit Singh Bagga (Khalistan Zindabad Force), Wadhawa Singh Babbar (Babbar Khalsa International), Lakhbir Singh (International Sikh Youth Federation), Ranjeet Singh (Khalistan Zindabad Force), Paramjit Singh (Khalistan Commando Force), Bhupinder Singh Bhinda (Khalistan Zindabad Force). Following an amendment in the UAPA recently, the UMHA declared a total of 13 persons as individual terrorists till date. In an official statement the U said, “These individuals are involved in various acts of terrorism from across the border and from foreign soil. They have been relentless in their nefarious efforts of destabilising the country, by trying to revive militancy in Punjab through their anti-national activities and through their support to and involvement in the Khalistan Movement.”
31-May-2020	According to reports, the pro-Khalistan group, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and their activities has been earning criticisms across several nations and this is evident from various incidents that are taking place in recent times. The latest is an ugly incident at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Surrey, BC Canada where Hardip Singh Nijjar, President of the gurdwara was involved in a brawl. Sukhi Chahal, CEO and chairman of California-based JDS Unified LLC said that “In a May 28, 2020 tweet, one of my latest questions put to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, self-styled Legal Adviser of so-called 'Sikhs For Justice' (SFJ) was to comment on the recent reported fight between Hardeep Nijjar and others at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Surrey, BC Canada.” He said, “Hardeep Nijjar is learnt to be a ‘proclaimed Offender’ and a wanted criminal in India." “I fail to understand why such criminals are at all allowed to enter other countries and granted asylums as in Nijjar’s case. How do such criminals manage to occupy important positions of Gurdwaras abroad?”, asked Chahal.
10-Jul-2019	The Government of India banned the pro-Khalistan radical group, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) for five years and declared it as an “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The US-based secessionist outfit with the primary objective of establishing an independent and sovereign country has its top leadership based in US, UK and Canada, with just 8-10 active members and negligible support base in India. SFJ enjoys strong online presence through social media accounts run in its own name or by its leaders — main promoter Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based attorney, apart from Hardip Singh Nijjar and Paramjit Singh Pamma who are principal proponents of “Referendum 2020” in Canada and UK respectively. A senior Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) official said all the major Sikh bodies consulted ahead of the five-year ban had supported the action and that the Centre had largely relied on the “material” sent by Punjab Government to impose the ban.