Trudeau meets Amarinder, CM raises Khalistan issue in talks
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh shared concerns with Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the militancy issue related to the separatist movement of Khalistan, during their meeting in Amritsar on Wednesday.
“I raised the issue of Khalistan, it’s the primary issue as there is money coming in from various countries including Canada,” said Singh.
“I took up the militancy concerns with Trudeau, the militancy concerns we have and he has assured us that they will look into this matter,” he added.
The Canadian prime minister, who is on a week-long visit to India, went to Amritsar’s Golden Temple on Wednesday, along with his wife and children.
Singh had earlier refused to meet Trudeau, claiming that the Canadian prime minister’s cabinet members were not only connected with but also supported the formation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh state.
Trudeau arrived here from Mumbai in the morning and offered prayers at the Golden Temple complex. He also visited the ‘Langar Hall’, the biggest community kitchen in the world.
Trudeau and his family sat down on small stools inside the Langar Hall to knead flour and
AMRITSAR:
roll chapatis.
Trudeau also did ‘parikrama’ before entering the sun-soaked and glittering all-gold sanctum sanctorum. His family bowed before the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.
“What an honour to be so well received at such a beautiful, meaningful place. We are filled with grace and humility,” Trudeau wrote down in the visitors’ book at the Golden Temple.
Besides the Trudeau-Amarinder meeting, the other highlight was the chief minister’s meeting with Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, who was born in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district and is the first Sikh to handle the defence portfolio of a western country.
Amarinder had refused to meet Sajjan in April 2017 during the latter’s visit to the state and even dubbed him and other ministers of Punjab-origin in the Trudeau government as “Khalistani sympathisers”.
On Wednesday, Amarinder not only met Sajjan but also shook hands with him and both leaders smiled at each other.