Canadian Sikhs held small protests exterior Indian diplomatic missions on Monday, every week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated there could also be a hyperlink between New Delhi and the killing of a Sikh separatist preacher in British Columbia.
Per week in the past, Trudeau stood up in Parliament to say that home intelligence businesses had been actively pursuing credible allegations linking New Delhi brokers to the taking pictures of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nigar, 45, in June.
About 100 protesters in Toronto burned the Indian flag and beat a cardboard cutout of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a shoe. About 200 demonstrators additionally gathered exterior the Vancouver Consulate.
In Ottawa, lower than 100 folks gathered in entrance of the Indian Excessive Commissioner’s Workplace (Embassy) within the capital. They waved yellow flags bearing the worldwide “Khalistan” model, indicating their help for making India’s Punjab area an impartial Sikh state, a trigger championed by Najjar.
“We’re actually grateful to Justin Trudeau,” protester Reshma Singh Bolinas stated in Ottawa. “We don’t need to go away any stone unturned to resolve this cowardly act.” Canada ought to put strain on India “to cease killing harmless folks sooner or later.”
Canada is residence to about 770,000 Sikhs – the most important Sikh inhabitants exterior their residence state of Punjab – and in recent times there have been a number of demonstrations which have angered India.
India referred to as Trudeau’s allegations “ridiculous.” It warned vacationers final week of accelerating “anti-Indian actions” in Canada, urging “excessive warning” however didn’t present proof or particulars of particular incidents.
These allegations have put the highlight on Canada’s Sikh neighborhood. Sikhs make up solely 2% of India’s inhabitants of 1.4 billion, however they’re a majority in Punjab, a state with a inhabitants of 30 million the place their faith was born 500 years in the past.
“The Indian authorities has used soiled ways and put Canada’s sovereignty in danger,” stated Kuljit Singh, a Toronto protester and member of the group Sikhs for Justice.
The Canadian accusations sparked mutual retaliation, with every nation expelling its diplomats and New Delhi suspending entry visas for Canadians.
Some demonstrators in each Toronto and Ottawa referred to as for the expulsion of the Indian Excessive Commissioner (Ambassador) to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, who had beforehand stated that the authorities had been knowledgeable of the protests and had been offering safety.
Najjar, who labored as a plumber, left the state of Punjab in northern India 1 / 4 of a century in the past and have become a Canadian citizen. He supported the formation of an impartial Sikh homeland. India categorized him as a “terrorist” in July 2020.