AMRITSAR: After the uncertainty and acrimony of the past few days, visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh at a hotel in Amitsar on Wednesday and discussed the prickly issue of Canada 's support for Khalistani groups operating from its soil.During the 40-minute meeting Trudeau said that his country did not support separatist movements either in India or anywhere in the world. Amarinder, on his part, handed over to Trudeau a list of nine most wanted Canada-based militants alleged to be involved in financing and supplying weapons to operatives in Punjab for terrorist activities. According to Amarinder, they are also engaged in trying to radicalise youths in Punjab.The chief minister also raised the issue of Canadian citizens of Indian origin believed to be involved in targeted killings of Hindu leaders in Punjab in the past two years and told Trudeau to take stern action against those involved in the crime.Among others who attended the meeting were Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan and Punjab local government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amarinder had sparked off a controversy last year when he had refused to meet Sajjan in Amritsar and called him a Khalistani sumpathiser.Union minister of state for housing, H S Puri, and Sidhu had welcomed Trudeau at the Amritsar airport when he landed from Delhi. Puri, along with cabinet minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, is only the second Sikh minister in the Narendra Modi government.Raveen Thukral, Amarinder's media advisor, said that during the meeting, Trudeau assured the chief minister that radical groups would not be supported and that fringe elements formed a minuscule percentage of Canada's Sikh population.Just before Trudeau's visit to India, Sikh hardline groups in Canada had started a campaign to stop Indian officials from entering their gurdwaras. The movement had spread to select gurdwaras in the UK and Australia as well, leading to a rift within the Sikh NRI community with many not wanting any ban on Indian officials.Trudeau cited the movement in Quebec province which aimed to separate from Canada to say that he he had dealt with threats all his life and was fully aware of the dangers of violence. Amarinder pointed out that hardliners had been rejected by the people of Punjab and that those fighting elections on the plank of a separate Sikh state had lost even their security deposits.Trudeau assured Amarinder Singh of addressing all concerns that were raised ansd that he was looking forward to closer ties with India, particularly with Punjab.

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