TRUDEAU IN AMRITSAR TODAY
CHANDIGARH: All eyes are on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s meeting with Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Amritsar on Wednesday.
The two leaders will have a “one-on-one meeting” and no ministers from either Trudeau or Amarinder’s cabinets would be there, said an official spokesperson of the Punjab government. According to the itinerary, the meeting to be held in a hotel is set to last about 20 minutes.
A Canadian high commission official said the names of those likely to accompany Trudeau to the meeting are being finalised.
The meeting was announced by Am arin der on Twitter on Monday after several days of uncertainty amid reports in the Canadian media on the visiting PM being given the “cold shoulder” by the Indian government over the Khalistan issue.
The Centre has nominated Union minister Hardeep Puri as the minister-in-waiting. He, along with Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Sidhu, will receive Trudeau at the Amritsar airport at 10.30 am and head for Golden Temple. Accompanied by SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and his wife Union minister Harsimrat Badal, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Gobind Singh Longowal will welcome the visiting PM.
CHANDIGARH : Sukhwinder Singh Mithu, whose Canadian wife Jaswinder Kaur Jassi was allegedly killed at the behest of her mother and maternal uncle 18 years ago, wants the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “personally intervene” for extraditing the duo to India to face trial.
Eight other accused in the case have already been awarded life imprisonment but trial against Malkiat Kaur and her brother Surjit Singh Badesha, both Canadian citizens, could not be conducted in their absence.
All efforts for their extradition have proved futile so far.
“I hope PM Trudeau who is known for his liberal values and fondness for human rights helps me get justice,” said Mithu, a resident of Kaunke village near Jagraon in Ludhiana. “He should help in extraditing the two culprits to India to face law of the land. They have killed my love and I have been fighting for justice for 18 years. Why is Canada protecting the killers?”
Mithu from a poor Jat Sikh family fell in love with Jassi, daughter of multi-millionaire orchard owners in British Columbia, during her visit to India in 1994. In 1999, she returned to India and secretly married Mithu, who lived at her uncle’s native village.
Next year, Mithu was booked for kidnapping and forcibly marrying Jassi, but she gave a statement in his favour and later started living with him.
In June that year, contract killers — allegedly hired by Kaur and Badesha — attacked the couple in Sangrur, leaving Jassi dead.
It was first in 2005 that Punjab Police contacted Canada seeking the duo’s extradition.
After a long legal tussle, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered their extradition on September 8 last year. A Punjab Police team reached Vancouver to take their custody and had completed formalities when the court of appeals stayed the order.
Through all these ups and downs, Mithu, who never remarried, stood like a rock. He has been allegedly framed in more than five cases, including one of rape in 2004. Jassi, he says, is the love of his life.