• Source:JND
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Canada has launched an investigation into potential threats against Air India flights and has enhanced the security. Canada authorities are probing the videos circulating online not to fly Air India starting November 19, the transportation minister said Thursday.

"We take every threat seriously, especially when it concerns airlines," Transportation Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters in Ottawa. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police "is doing an investigation," he said.

Canadian Transportation Minister Pablo Rodriguez taking to social media site X said, “Our government takes any threat to aviation extremely seriously. We are investigating recent threats circulating online closely and with our security partners. We will do everything necessary to keep Canadians safe."

The statement from Canadian authorities came days after a video featuring Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel for the Khalistani outfit, Sikhs for Justice went viral online. In the video, he issued a warning to all Sikhs, "Don't fly Air India after November 19, your lives may be in danger." He told Canadian media this was not a threat, but rather a call to boycott Indian businesses.

On Thursday, amid an ongoing rift in ties between New Delhi and Ottawa, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India has raised the issue of “terrorist threats” with Canada.

“We strongly condemn such terrorist threats. We have been engaged with foreign governments on the activities of radical and terrorist elements that have been inciting violence and intimidation of our leadership, of our diplomats,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of Canada, Melanie Joly, said that it is a difficult moment in the relationship between the two nations that has spanned decades.

She said, "When it comes to India, I have mentioned it many times...I am in close contact with my counterpart, S Jaishankar, and we know this is a difficult moment in a relationship that spanned decades, so therefore I am confident that we will be able to get through this difficult period, as we know that we have many interests also that we can work together in common."

Notably, the diplomatic tensions between India and Canada escalated following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations of India's link to the killing of Khalistani Tiger Force Chief, Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. 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.