To protest the unsolved murder of one of their leaders last month in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area, a few hundred members of the Sikh community in Canada rallied outside the Indian Consulate in Toronto on Saturday.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the president of a Sikh temple and an advocate for the establishment of an independent Sikh state that supporters plan to call Khalistan, was shot and killed, and they charged the Indian government with being involved.
“When an Indian agency and system commit a crime, they have to be held accountable,” Kuljeet Singh, a representative of Sikhs for Justice, the US-based group that organized the march, told AFP.
On June 18, Nijjar—whom India had listed as a wanted terrorist—was assassinated in Surrey, a Vancouver neighborhood that has one of the country’s largest Sikh populations.
Nijjar argued for the separation of a portion of Pakistan and possibly of northern India to form an independent Sikh state. Nijjar was charged with carrying out terrorist attacks in India, a claim he vigorously contested.
The marchers, who were primarily male, hoisted yellow flags bearing blue emblems to symbolize their independence movement while yelling, “Khalistan! Khalistan!”
After leaving the suburbs of Toronto, they arrived in front of the Indian Consulate, where they were welcomed by about 50 diaspora residents who were in favor of the Indian government.
A placard asking for the murder of Indian diplomats is up here. Vijay Jain, an IT expert and one of the counterdemonstrators, told AFP: “We are worried because these organisations have already carried out terrorist activities and politicians are doing nothing.
Twenty police officers stood in a line to intervene and divide the two groups. One Sikh protester was removed after breaking down a barrier and running to the other side.
Tensions between Canada and India have increased as a result of the murder of the Sikh leader.
The handling of Sikh protesters in Canada has been criticized by New Delhi as being lax.
According to Arindam Bagchi, the spokeswoman for India’s foreign minister, “We have asked the Canadian government to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our diplomats.”
Outside of their native state of Punjab, India, Sikhs are most numerous in Canada.
