Canadian MP asks law enforcement agencies to take Khalistani violent extremism seriously
Ottawa (PTI): Khalistani violent extremism is a Canadian problem, a prominent Canadian MP of Indian origin has said, calling on the country's law enforcement agencies to take the issue with "all seriousness" it demands.
The remarks by Chandra Arya, a Member of Parliament from Nepean in the House of Commons, came as he addressed the House on Wednesday.
"Khalistani violent extremism is a Canadian problem and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has said the national task force is focused on investigating it," Arya said.
He said everyone knows that extremism and terrorism don’t recognise and are not limited to national borders.
"I call on our law enforcement agencies to take this issue with all the seriousness it demands," he added.
Sharing his experience, Arya said a group of Khalistani protesters staged a disruptive demonstration against him while he was participating in a Hindu event in Edmonton two weeks ago.
Arya said he could safely attend the event only with the protection of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
"In Canada, we have long recognised and experienced the serious problem of Khalistani extremism," he said.
"Let me be clear. The sanctity of Canadian sovereignty is sacrosanct and any interference by foreign state actors within Canada, in any form, is unacceptable," he added.
The ties between India and Canada had come under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September last year of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
India rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd" and "motivated".
India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity.
Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in British Columbia on June 18 last year. The murder is being probed by the RCMP.
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Over 17,000 people went missing in Delhi in 2024: NCRB
New Delhi (PTI): A total of 23,058 people, comprising 9,482 men and 13,576 women, were reported missing in Delhi in 2024, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Of the total, 5,491 were children below the age of 18 — 1,571 boys, 3,920 girls.
The city recorded 17,567 fresh adult missing persons cases in 2024, comprising 7,911 men and 9,656 women.
According to the NCRB data, released on Wednesday, 14,637 men, 18,238 women and six transgender persons were still missing from previous years.
At the latest count, in 2024, Delhi had a total of 55,939 missing persons cases — 24,119 men, 31,814 women and six transgender persons.
In 2024, police traced or collected 28,392 missing persons, including 12,182 men, 16,208 women and two transgender persons.
Only half of the men and half of the women who went missing could be traced.
A total of 27,547 missing persons – 11,937 men, 15,606 women, four transgender persons — were yet to be untraced by the end of the year, the data showed.
The data also revealed that 5,352 children from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024.
The number of still missing boys was 1,621, and the number of missing girls was 3,729. Two transgender children were yet to be found.
After adding the pending cases from previous years, the total number of missing children cases handled in 2024 rose to 10,843.
The police traced or recovered 6,762 missing children — 2,030 boys, 4,732 girls.
The recovery rate stood at 63.6 per cent for boys and 61.9 per cent for girls, while no transgender child was traced.
By the end of 2024, a total of 4,081 children remained untraced, 1,162 of them boys, 2,917 girls, and two transgender children.
