Slogans supporting Khalistan surfaced in parts of Delhi this morning ahead of Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s threats for Republic Day. Slogans in support of Khalistan were found written on walls of Chander Vihar area of Outer Delhi.

The Delhi Police have removed the slogans and filed a case in this matter.

The US claims Pannun, an American-Canadian citizen, was the subject of an assassination bid orchestrated by Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national and an un-named Indian government official.

Pannun had warned about hoisting the Khalistani flag in Delhi on January 26, which is celebrated as Republic Day.

Sources said Sikhs for Justice wrote slogans in support of Khalistan on the walls of Chandra Vihar area after his warning video was widely circulated.

The slogans sought a referendum and voting for the demand of separate Khalistan.

Sources said Pannun instigates such activities through his sleeper cells in Delhi ahead of Republof Day and Independence Day.

Pannun has also issued threats to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Sources said he has called on gangsters to attack Mr Mann on Republic Day.

In view of such threats, Mr Mann has Z+ category security cover. The Punjab Police have promised “strict action” against those who might plot to assassinate Mr Mann.

Pannun has also issued threats about the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya due on January 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present on the occasion along with other senior members of his government, industrialists and other celebrities.

Earlier, Pannun had also threatened to attack the new Parliament building in Delhi. On the day named, two men smuggled smoke bombs inside the Lok Sabha and let them off during the proceedings.

The police, however, claimed they had no connection with Khalistan activists and were protesting about myriad subjects including Manipur violence and farmers’ issues. The men have been arrested and face charges under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA.

The Directorate of Estates on Tuesday issued a notice to evict former TMC MP Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha last month, from her government bungalow, sources in the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said.

The Trinamool Congress leader has been asked to vacate the bungalow immediately, which had been allotted to her as an MP, they said.

“Since the eviction notice was issued to her (Moitra) on Tuesday, a team of officials from the directorate of estates will now be sent to ensure that the government bungalow is vacated at the earliest,” a source told PTI.

The TMC leader, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha on December 8 last year, was earlier asked to vacate the house by January 7 after her allotment was cancelled.

On January 8, the DoE had issued a notice seeking her reply within three days as to why she had not vacated her government accommodation. Another notice was also issued to her on January 12.

On January 4, the Delhi High Court asked the TMC leader to approach the DoE with a request to allow her to continue to occupy the government accommodation allotted to her.

Justice Subramoniun Prasad, while dealing with Ms Moitra’s challenge to an official intimation asking her to vacate the government bungalow by January 7, noted that the rules permitted the authorities to allow a resident to overstay for up to six months on payment of certain charges in exceptional circumstances.

The court allowed Ms Moitra to withdraw her petition and noted it has not made any observations on the merits of the matter. It said the DoE shall decide her case after applying its own mind.

It added that the law mandates issuing notice to a resident before eviction and the government has to take steps to evict the petitioner in accordance with law.

Ms  Moitra was held guilty of “unethical conduct” and expelled from Lok Sabha on December 8 last year for allegedly accepting gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani and sharing her user ID and password of the Parliament website with him. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The number of study permits Canada issued to Indian students fell sharply late last year after India ejected Canadian diplomats who would process the permits and fewer Indian students applied due to a diplomatic dispute over the murder of Khalistani terrorist in Canada, a top Canadian official told Reuters.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller added in an interview that he believes the number of study permits to Indians is unlikely to rebound soon. Diplomatic tensions erupted after Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June said there was evidence connecting Indian agents to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

The tensions are likely to weigh on the numbers going forward, Miller said.

“Our relationship with India has really halved our ability to process a lot of applications from India,” Miller said.

In October, Canada was forced to pull 41 diplomats, or two-thirds of its staff, out of India on orders from New Delhi. In addition, the dispute has prompted Indian students to seek to study in other countries, a spokeswoman for the minister said.

Those factors led to an 86% drop in study permits issued to Indians in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous quarter, to 14,910 from 108,940, according to official data that have not been previously reported.

C. Gurus Ubramanian, counselor for the High Commission of India in Ottawa, said some Indian international students were looking at other options besides Canada due to “concerns, in the recent past, regarding lack of residential and adequate teaching facilities” at some Canadian institutions.

Indians have formed the largest group of international students in Canada in recent years, with more than 41% – or 225,835 – of all permits going to them in 2022.

“I can’t tell you about how the diplomatic relationship will evolve, particularly if police were to lay charges,” Miller said. “It’s not something that I see any light at the end of the tunnel on.”

International students are a cash cow for Canadian universities as they bring in about C$22 billion ($16.4 billion) annually and slowdown will be a blow to the institutions.

In June, Canada said there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the murder of Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb. India has rejected that allegation. Canadian authorities have yet to charge anyone for the killing.

The Canadian government also has been seeking to reduce the overall number of international students entering the country, in part as a response to an ongoing housing shortage.

“Right now we have a challenge with the sheer volume” of students coming in, Miller said. “It’s just gotten out of control and needs to be reduced – I would say – significantly over a short period of time.”

Miller said the government would introduce other measures to lower the volume of international students during the first half of this year, including a possible cap.

Canada is a popular destination for international students since it is relatively easy to obtain work permits after finishing courses.

The government intends to address “a very generous” program for postgraduate work permits and to crack down on “fly-by-night” universities, called designated learning institutes, he said.

The government already plans curbs to the number of off-campus work hours for international students, which the food service and retail industries fear could cause labor shortages.

In 2023, the government projected that some 900,000 international students would study in Canada that year, about three times that of a decade ago. Miller said 40% of those students – or some 360,000 – were Indian. The number of permits given to Indian students declined by 4% last year, but they remained the largest group.