KHALISTAN EXTREMISM MONITOR
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
A project of the Institute for Conflict Management
The Indian government has shared the latest coordinates of Canada-based designated terrorist Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dalla of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) with the Canadian government and asked them to make a provisional arrest of the fugitive.
“Recently, the NIA, which is probing cases against Dalla, got some ‘specific details’ related to the latest whereabouts of him in Canada and also received the exact details of his car, current address along with some photographs. The NIA approached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) via MHA, who, in turn, approached the Canadian government through their embassy in Delhi, asking them to make a provisional arrest,” a source said, adding that no action has been taken so far against Dalla by the Canadian government.
A query sent to the Canada embassy did not elicit any response.
Till 2020, Dalla was working with Punjab-based gangsters, but later he shifted to Canada where he started working with KTF chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar and started running terror modules on his behalf. Nijjar, another designated terrorist under UAPA, was killed by unidentified assailants on June 18 last year on the premises of a gurdwara.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on January 9 last year declared Dalla a designated terrorist after it found his involvement in heinous crimes. “Dalla is involved in heinous crimes such as murder, extortion and targeted killings besides terror activities and he is also involved in terror financing, cross-border smuggling of drugs or weapons on large-scale (from Pakistan),” a senior official said.
After the killing of Nijjar, Dalla is handling all the operations of KTF and trying to execute some more killings in India, the official said.
Explaining provisional arrest, an official said on receipt of an urgent request from a foreign state for the immediate arrest of a fugitive criminal, the Central government may request the Magistrate having competent jurisdiction to issue a provisional warrant for the arrest of the fugitive criminal.
Dalla, meanwhile, has continued his India operations; in September last year, Congress leader Baljinder Singh Balli was shot dead at his home in Punjab’s Moga by two of his associates. Balli (45), who was also known as ‘nambardar’ locally, was the Congress block president in Ajitwal village.
Hours after Balli’s killing, Dalla, a resident of Dala village in Moga, took to Facebook and claimed responsibility for it. “I am responsible for the murder of Balli in Dala village because it was my own village’s politics which had made me tread this path. This man (Balli) was responsible for keeping my mother in CIA (police) custody for a week and he also got my friends arrested. He was hand in glove with police… and got my home vandalised. He destroyed my home just to gain his own afsar shaahi… My life’s aim was not to live my own life but to kill him. If we wished, we would have killed his child too but that child was nowhere at fault… Those who are sympathising with him, their homes are also not far for us…” read the post.