- The Canadian government has removed a reference to Sikh extremism from its “2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canadian terrorism”.
- Earlier,the 2018 report had identified Sikh extremism and the movement for an independent homeland of Khalistan in Punjab as one of five key terror threats facing Canada.This was the first time that the report had included Sikh extremism as the top five threats in Canada.
- Now the section pertaining to incidents of terror by members of the Sikh community has now been renamed as Extremists who Support Violent means to Establish an Independent State Within India.
- However,the move was criticised by the India government,which has accused the Canadian government of going soft on pro-Khalistan groups in Canada.
- The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement,which seeks to create a separate country called Khalistan in the Punjab region to serve as a homeland for Sikhs.The territorial definition of the proposed country Khalistan consists of both the Punjab,India along with Punjab, Pakistan and includes parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan.
- In December 2018,Government of India had declared the Khalistan Liberation Force(KLF) a banned organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
