On his way out of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Nijjar’s Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, he called his 21-year-old son. The family had made pizza, Balraj Singh Nijjar told his father, and had prepared the sweet pudding seviyan, his favorite dessert.
The stunning allegation that India was behind the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia has revived long-simmering tensions within Canada’s Indian diaspora, pitting staunch Hindu nationalists against supporters of the creation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Last October, in the city of Mississauga in Ontario, the police broke up a fight in which one man was slightly injured after a crowd, carrying Indian and Khalistan flags, became unruly during a Diwali celebration. In March, a Punjabi radio journalist covering a protest of an Indian high commissioner’s visit to Surrey, British Columbia, was attacked by demonstrators.
These episodes underscore the challenges that Canada — home to the world’s largest Sikh population outside India — faces following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim on Monday that India was responsible for fatally shooting the Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June outside a temple in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.
Mr. Trudeau’s allegations have set off a diplomatic skirmish, as the country seeks India’s cooperation with its investigation into Mr. Nijjar’s killing
The long-running, tense and sometimes combative relationship between extremists on both sides threatens to spill over into new violence as their members are either empowered or enWhile Canada has long said that anti-India protests by Sikhs, provided they are not violent, are constitutionally protected free speech, a senior federal government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the country recognizes that there is a need to find a way to rein in more extreme and inflammatory actions.
Sikhs make about 2.1 percent of Canada’s population, roughly 770,000 people, just over half of all people with Indian heritage in the country.
An episode in June prompted an objection from India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. That month, a march in Brampton, Ontario, a city west of Toronto, included a parade float presented by Sikh nationalists that mocked the assassination of Indira Gandhi, who was killed in 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
Speaking at a news conference several days later in New Delhi, Mr. Jaishankar called attention to a video on social media that showed the parade float.
“I think it’s not good for the relationship, and I think it’s not good for Canada,” he said.
Since Mr. Nijjar’s killing, tensions between the two communities have intensified. In July, protesters outside the Indian Consulate General, in downtown Toronto, promoted the Khalistan cause with large signs that accused Indian diplomats of being behind Mr. Nijjar’s death.
In a statement on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, called the posters “unacceptable” and said the country takes its duties “regarding the safety of diplomats very seriously.”
Last October, the police intervened after a fight erupted at Diwali celebrations in Mississauga, where a crowd of several hundred was dotted with Khalistan flags on one side and Indian flags on another. The police described the fighting as isolated and did not make any arrests.
Last July, the murder of another Sikh man stoked fears of targeted killings in the Sikh community in Surrey.
Punjab Police sources told News 18 that Singh had joined pro-Khalistan forces and had fled to Canada from Punjab in 2017. He hailed from Punjab’s Moga district.
According to reports, Duneke was killed in an inter-gang rivalry. Top Intelligence sources told News 18 that these killings are due to inter-gang rivalry between groups. "These groups want to own the Khalistani movement for the sake of money," sources were quoted as saying.
Sources added that this is nothing but an attempt to control immigration business. "They hire local gangsters to kill these people because their utility is over. Another fear is they will disclose everything they have done in India on behalf of these gangsters," sources said, adding that Khalistani groups exploiting emotions and compulsions of youth and spreading fake narrative.
