Sikh group vows Indian consulate ‘shutdown’ over link to high-profile B.C. gurdwara murder
Global News
Protests are slated to take place outside Indian consulates in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver next Monday, said Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal counsel for Sikhs for Justice.
The human rights advocacy group Sikhs For Justice says peaceful protests will “shut down” Indian consulate offices in Canada next week, with new intelligence appearing to link the Indian state to a high-profile murder in British Columbia.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, was gunned down in the Surrey temple’s parking lot after evening prayers on June 18. Nijjar, 45, was a prominent community leader and supporter of Sikh separatism.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed national security authorities had obtained “credible” intelligence “agents of the government of India” were behind the grisly killing — something the World Sikh Organization of Canada and others had suggested shortly after Nijjar’s death.
Protests were slated to take place outside Indian consulates in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver next Monday, according to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal counsel for Sikhs for Justice.
“We will not allow the Indian consulates to function and we’re going to push the Canadian government to name the individuals who are responsible for assassinating and giving the orders to hit Nijjar,” he told Global News.
“He has been assassinated outside the gurdwara — that was being done to give a very strong message to pro-Khalistan Sikhs that they will be hunted, even in the Western world.”
Sikhs For Justice organizes referendum votes on Khalistan around the world, holding one in Surrey — where Nijjar was murdered — earlier this month.
The Khalistan movement rose to prominence in the 1980s, but discussion around sovereignty for Sikhs and Punjab can be traced back to the 1947 partition of India. The movement is outlawed in India, as are a number of groups associated with it, which are listed as “terrorist organisations” by the Indian state.
