“Canada has taken role of how Pakistan used to be earlier”: Congress MP

New Delhi [India], September 21 (ANI): Amid continuous escalation in the diplomatic crisis between India and Canada, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu on Thursday said that Ottawa has taken the role of how Pakistan used to be earlier.

Talking to ANI, the Congress leader said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him to take care of the Indian students in Canada.

“I had a discussion (regarding the students in Canada) with PM Modi in the Parliament yesterday and he told me that they’ll take care of it …” Ravaneet Singh said, adding, “Canada has taken the role of how Pakistan used to be earlier…”

Tensions escalated in India-Canada relations after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday alleged that the Indian government was behind the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India, was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada’s Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

Trudeau during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, claimed his country’s national security officials had reasons to believe that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

The allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister and foreign minister were rejected by the Ministry of External Affairs in India which dubbed the statements as absurd. 

“We have seen and reject the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, as also the statement by their Foreign Minister. Allegations of the Government of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated” the statement said. 

However, speaking about Nijjar, Ravaneet Singh said that the designated terrorist was the right hand of the killers who assassinated his grandfather.

“Hardeep Singh Nijjar was the right hand of the killers who assassinated my grandfather. He went there in 1993 and he got the citizenship…Nijjar and company are out of the 10 most wanted gangsters and drug peddlers…,” he added.