After the murder of separatists
Sikhs demonstrate against Modi in Canada
September 26, 2023, 4:27 a.m
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The murder of a religious activist in Canada has raised tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi since the Canadian prime minister named India’s government as the mastermind. Hundreds of diaspora Sikhs are now gathering in front of the consulates and trampling on photos of Prime Minister Modi.
After the murder of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil, for which Canada blames India, hundreds of followers of the religious community gathered in front of the Indian diplomatic missions in Canada for demonstrations. Protesters in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver burned Indian flags and trampled on photos of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We’re not safe here in Canada,” said participant Joe Hotha in Toronto.
He came to demonstrate against the “Indian terrorists” in front of the Indian consulate, said Sikh and Canadian citizen Harpar Gosal, also in Toronto. At the same time, he waved the yellow flag of Khalistan, the independent state that the religious community hopes to found in the northern Indian region of Punjab.
In June, Sikh activist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who campaigned for the establishment of an independent Sikh state in India, was found shot to death in the parking lot of a temple in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Last week, the Canadian government expelled an Indian diplomat who the Foreign Ministry in Ottawa said was suspected of having a connection to the assassination attempt.
India calls allegations “absurd”
The allegations sparked a heated diplomatic dispute. The Indian government called the allegations “absurd”, denied “any acts of violence in Canada” and “temporarily” stopped processing visa applications in Canada.
Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh community outside the northern Indian state of Punjab. Punjab, where about 58 percent of the population is Sikh and 39 percent Hindu, was rocked by a violent independence movement in the 1980s and 1990s. Thousands of people were killed. Today, the most vocal separatists live in the Indian diaspora.