STOCKTON: A Canadian Sikh as been killed in India’s Punjab in an encounter between police and members of the separatist Khalistian Liberation Force, a spokesman for his family and members of the Sikh community say.
The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi confirmed it’s looking into reports of the shooting death of Toronto resident Mo hinder Singh Kooner.
“We’ve heard about it and we are trying to get official confirma tion”. Counselor Gary Soroka said it’s difficult to get accurate information about these things. We are working here through New Delhi. $Fl Kooner was investigated in 1987 in connection with a threat against Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi during the Vancouver Commonwealth Conference in Vancouver.
The 29 year old father of one was stopped by police in Toronto and equipment that could be used to detonate a bomb was found in his car. He was never charged.
Balkaran Singh Gill, a friend of Kooner who is staying with his wife and son in Toronto, said Wednesday the family got news of the death.
“We are very, very upset” he said “And the family is really stuck. No one can go to India to find out what happened or the Indian government will do the same thing to them”.
Kooner, a Canadian citizen who immigrated to Canada about Seven years ago, was last seen in Canada sometime in April., his friends say.
He was a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, but was ousted from the separatist Organization several months ago because “ he wouldn’t follow the law,” ISYF national president Ay far Singh Kooner said Wednesday from Windsor. At home he was kicked out at the time because of a misunderstanding about breaking the laws. He wouldn’t listen to us, said Avtar Kooner, who is not related to the dead man, but is from the same village in Punjab.
It is very bad news that he is killed.”
Sikhs interviewed in Vancouver and Toronto say Kooner died near the town of Goraya, in Punjab’s Jalandhar district, when he and some other members of the extremist Khalistan Liberation Force had an encounter with Pun jab police. He was badly wounded and died after he was carried away by another KLF member. Meanwhile, former Williams Lake resident Bhupinder Singh Kooner remains in an Amnistar jail facing murder and terrorist charges. Bhupinder Kooner, which is not related to Mohinder, was arrested more than a year ago and charged with being a member of another group, Bhindranwal’s Tiger Force.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 27, 1989
