Stop Sikh extremism: Manmohan Singh

Toronto, Jun 28: "The Sikh community are peace loving and good citizens of Canada,and Canadian soil should not be allowed to be used for promoting extremism against India" said the prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday, Jun 27 to the reporters at a joint media interaction in the company of host Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Dr Singh, himself a Sikh, said he was of the “fervent hope" that the community would not allow its religious institutions and other places to encourage extremism.

Mr Singh made it clear to the Canadian government and various Sikh community in Canada, that those small group of people who have taken the path of extremism can not break the good relations of India with Canada.

“Extremism of the religious variety is something not in tune with the growing realities of the integrated world community and globalised community," he said.

“I have discussed with Prime Minister Harper that the Canadian soil is not used to promote extremism. The Prime Minister told me there are laws which have set out with some limitations. But, I am confident that the government is fully alive to what is happening," he said.

The Prime Minister"s comments on the Sikh community and extremism assume significance in the context of demands by a section of the Sikh community here that the Indian government remove them from a “blacklist" that denies them entry to India.

It also comes close on the heels of the 25th anniversary of the bombing of Air India plane 'Kanishka" in 1985 which claimed the lives of 329 people in which some Khalistani extremists living in Canada were believed to be involved.

OneIndia News