5 Canada ministers pro-Khalistan: Amarinder Singh

NEW DELHI: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday five Sikh ministers of the Justin Trudeau government in Canada were Khalistani sympathisers, adding he would not meet their defence minister, Harjit Sajjan, when he visits India.

Capt Singh's remarks, made on a TV show, are expected to kick up a storm as Sajjan is scheduled to visit India for six days, beginning April 19, and to travel between Amritsar, Jalandhar and Chandigarh. "Harjit Sajjan is a Khalistani sympathiser. There are, in fact, five ministers in the Justin Trudeau government, I will not have any truck with them. These Khalistani sympathisers had prevailed upon the government to prevent my entry into Canada, where I wanted to go to meet my Punjabi brethren and not to cam paign for elec tions," he said.

Capt Singh had cancelled a scheduled seven-day trip to Canada in June last year after he was threatened with a case related to torture in a court in Toronto. Also, in May last year, intelligence agencies in Punjab as well as the ministry of home affairs had sent an alert to the Canadian government saying proKhalistan terrorists were running a camp near Mission City in British Columbia to train militants to carry out strikes in Punjab. It is not clear whether the Punjab government will provide Sajjan with police security.

Punjab's new CM created another controversy , this time on the issue of EVMs, when he differed from his own part, the Congress, and said he disagreed with the tampering theory.