Sikhs protest outside Indian missions in Canada over leader’s murder
Sikhs protest outside Indian missions in Canada over leader’s murder
TORONTO: Canadian Sikhs staged protests outside India’s diplomatic missions on Monday, a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there may be a link between New Delhi and the murder of a Sikh separatist advocate in British Columbia.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a week ago stood in parliament to say that domestic intelligence agencies were actively pursuing credible allegations tying New Delhi’s agents to the shooting of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, in June.
About 100 protesters in Toronto burned an Indian flag and struck a cardboard cut-out of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a shoe. About 200 protesters also gathered outside the Vancouver consulate.
In Ottawa, fewer than 100 people gathered in front of the Indian High Commissioner’s office (embassy) in the capital. They waved yellow flags marked with the world “Khalistan”, a reference to their support for making India’s Punjab region an independent state for Sikhs, a cause Nijjar campaigned for.
“We are really thankful to Justin Trudeau… We want no stone left unturned to get to the bottom of this cowardly act,” protester Reshma Singh Bolinas said in Ottawa. Canada should put pressure on India to “stop the killing of innocent people in future.”
Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs — the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab — and in recent years there have been many demonstrations that have irked India.
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