BBC NEWS AGENCY, TORONTO (CANADA)
How Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder in Canada fuelled tensions with India
By Nadine Yousif
BBC News, Toronto
A prominent Sikh leader was brazenly murdered last month outside a temple in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The death has outraged his supporters and intensified global tensions between Sikh separatists and the Indian government.
On a mid-June summer evening in the busy parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in the city of Surrey, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in his truck by two masked gunmen.
A month later, the unsolved killing continues to reverberate, in Canada and across borders. Hundreds of Sikh separatists took to the streets in Toronto, along with a handful others in cities like London, Melbourne and San Francisco, just last weekend to protest the Indian government, which they believe is responsible for his death.
The Indian government has not commented on such allegations.
The outrage following the 45-year-old’s killing has brought to light a long-standing issue of some groups demanding a separate homeland for Sikhs, who are a religious minority that make up about 2% of India’s population.
The movement was at its peak in the 1980s in the state of Punjab, which witnessed several violent attacks and deaths. It lost steam after armed forces ran special operations against the movement – but supporters in the diaspora community continued their calls for a separate state, which have intensified in recent years.
India has strongly opposed the Khalistan movement. All mainstream political parties, including in Punjab, have denounced violence and separatism.
Mr Nijjar was a prominent Sikh leader in BC and a vocal backer of a separate Khalistani state. Supporters of his have said that he was a target of threats in the past because of his activism.
India said he was a terrorist and led a militant separatist group – accusations his supporters call “unfounded”.
Canadian investigators said they have yet to establish a motive for his murder or identify any suspects, but they have categorised the killing as a “targeted incident”.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh diaspora outside the state of Punjab. On 8 July, hundreds protested Mr Nijjar’s death in Toronto outside India’s High Consulate building. They were met with a smaller counter protest in support of the Indian government.
The two sides shouted at each other through barricades for several hours, and one pro-Khalistan demonstrator was arrested after attempting to breach the fence.
Even before the weekend, concerns had been raised about the protest.
Some posters for the Toronto event featured the words “Kill India” and labelled Indian diplomats in Canada as “killers”, leading the outraged Indian government to summon the Canadian envoy.
minister has previously accused India of being one of the top sources of foreign interference in Canada.
India, for its part, has argued that the rise of the Sikh separatist movement in Canada has interfered in India’s domestic affairs.
Despite this, both countries have long-standing diplomatic and trade ties and are in the advanced stage of talks to sign a landmark free-trade agreement. It is not clear whether the recent diplomatic tensions will have an impact on the deal.
Balpreet Singh said he believes Canada needs to take a stronger stance against foreign interference by India, arguing that it has mainly targeted the Sikh community.
But he added that Canada has also provided a place where many Sikhs who are supporters of the Khalistani movement can speak openly, and that the community remains defiant in the face of Mr Nijjar’s death.
“There is no one telling us we can’t talk about Khalistan here,” he said. “If you try to tell us we can’t talk about our sovereignty, we will do the very opposite.”
Simranjit Singh Mann Fatehgarh Sahib