Canadian court rejects appeal by two Khalistan supporters to be taken off no-fly list

The agency Canadian Press reported that Bhagat Singh Brar and Parvkar Singh Dulai wanted their no-fly designations under the Secure Air Travel Act to be removed. However, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against their plea, which challenged a judgment from a court in 2022 that upheld their being placed on the list.

The court found that the government had “reasonable grounds to suspect that the appellants would travel by air to commit a terrorism offence”.

The hearings were held on June 13 and June 17 and the decision was delivered on June 19 by the three-judge bench.

Brar is believed to be the son of Lakhbir Singh Rode, considered the head of the International Sikh Youth Federation, which is a proscribed terrorist entity in Canada. Rode, the nephew of extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, died in Pakistan in December last year. Bhindranwale was killed in June 1984 when Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar during Operation Bluestar.

Brar was prevented from boarding a flight at Vancouver International Airport on April 24, 2018, while Dulai was denied boarding at the same airport on May 17 the same year.

In July 2020, the outlet Global News had reported that Brar, based in Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area , was accused in documents of Canadian security agencies of “working with Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service to plan an attack in India that was disrupted in 2017”. Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI is Pakistan’s spy agency.

The same documents, the outlet reported, alleged Dulai, based in Surrey, British Columbia, was “suspected to be a facilitator of terrorist-related activities, and has shown an ongoing pattern of involvement within the Khalistani extremist milieu”.