Wednesday, September 20, 2023

‘His spirit is still among us’: Sikhs defiant in Canada city where activist was murdered

Colleagues say they knew Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by India for his role in Canada as a community leader


Sarah Berman in Surrey, British Columbia
THE GUARDIAN
Wed 20 Sep 2023 17.40 BST


Justin Trudeau may have shocked the world this week when he linked “agents of India” to the murder of a Canadian citizen in British Columbia, but colleagues who worked alongside Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar before he was shot dead this summer said the link was already clear.


“We’re not surprised,” said Gurkeerat Singh, a volunteer at the Surrey temple that Nijjar led from 2019 until his death on 18 June. “The whole community knew who was behind it. We knew that Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by the Indian state for his role as a community leader advocating for human rights and for a separate Sikh state.”

Surrey, British Columbia is a sprawling suburb outside Vancouver, hemmed in by highways to the east and west, the Fraser River to the north, and the United States border to the south. Since the 1980s the area has become a landing pad for many diasporic communities.

It is home to one of the largest Sikh communities outside of India, and the Guru Nanak Gurdwara – where Nijjar served as president – is a prominent global voice advocating for the creation of a Sikh homeland. But it also plays a key role in local life: every day the temple fills with hundreds of people seeking meals, disaster relief, and other kinds of aid.

Named after the religion’s founder, the temple sits on a deep lot behind blue and white pointed arches, with a silver dome and flagpoles rising above the front gates.

Worshippers at the gurdwara on Tuesday expressed overlapping relief, anger, hope and fear in reaction to Trudeau’s comments: relief that India’s alleged foreign interference was publicly named; anger that more wasn’t done to protect Nijjar; hope that Canada would take further action to hold perpetrators to account; and fear for personal safety as global tensions rise.

One temple volunteer, who asked not to be named, said that Canadian Sikhs with family in India were struggling.

“​​We are grateful somebody has finally stepped up and spoken for minorities in India,” she said. “Now obviously there are safety concerns. So, [for] Canadians that are going to be travelling to India, is it safe for us? Can we go? What’s going to happen if we go?”

On Tuesday, Canada issued new travel advice for India, warning of an increased threat of terror attacks in the country. On Wednesday, India followed suit, warning its nationals of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes” in Canada.

When Trudeau made his statement to parliament late on Monday, Nijjar’s supporters were set to gather for an evening prayer at the site of his assassination, a parking lot behind the gurdwara.

When the crowd started to gather on Monday night, news of the prime minister’s allegations had already filtered through the community. The prayer circle expanded to include performance, poetry reading, speeches and political organising.

“The way we deal with loss in our Sikh community is very different. Yes, there’s sadness,” Singh explained, “but if his sacrifice is what led to India’s hypocrisy and India’s brutality to be unmasked in front of the whole world, then his sacrifice is something to be celebrated.”

Three months after Nijjar’s death, no new president has replaced him. Volunteers who attended Monday’s gathering say there were both tears and smiles as the community celebrated its central pillar. Rows of yellow and blue Khalistani flags and a billboard bearing his likeness framed the scene.

“We feel like his spirit, his strength, is still among us,” Singh said.

Nijjar, who was born in Punjab, moved in the mid-90s to Canada, where he married, had two sons and opened a plumbing business. He was a naturalised Canadian citizen.

In 2020 Indian authorities accused Nijjar of belonging to a proscribed group and designated him as a “terrorist”. Last year, officials accused him of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest, and announced a cash reward for information leading to his arrest.

His colleagues remember him as a hard-working servant of his community, who would wake up before dawn to wash dishes or clean bathrooms before an early morning program at the temple. “He would be the first one to show up here and the last one to leave,” Singh recalled.

Sikh diaspora activism has long been a source of tension between India and Canada, with Delhi repeatedly accusing Ottawa of tolerating “terrorists and extremists”.

In the 1980s Sikh separatists were linked to attacks on India’s prime minister and Air India flight 182, which killed 329 people. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in retaliatory riots.

Gurkeerat Singh, 30, wasn’t born when these violent events took place, but he knows a “terrorist” stigma still lingers. Some Canadian Sikhs who oppose India’s crackdown on religious minorities don’t support an ethno-national solution, either.

Instead of silencing the separatists, Nijjar’s murder seems to be giving new life to the exiled political movement, he said.

The Guru Nanak temple’s walls are lined with posters asking members to vote “YES” for Punjabi independence.

“The Indian state might have thought that by killing one individual they might put a hold on this cause or put fear inside people,” Singh said. “For us, the people who were close to him, it gives us more inspiration.”

The temple hosted a non-binding separatist vote last month, and there are plans to host a second vote on 29 October. The Sikhs for Justice campaign, which has collected ballots in communities around the globe since 2021, aims to hold a vote in India by 2025.

Moninder Singh, spokesperson for the BC Sikh Gurdwara Council and a close friend of Nijjar, spoke to supporters in a video message on Monday.

“The underlying feeling is one of frustration and anger,” he said. “Nobody did anything for his protection. Nobody did anything to hold India accountable in any which way.”

Moninder Singh also raised concerns about ongoing intelligence sharing between Canada and India.

But amid the frustration, anger, and fears that another attack could follow, Singh said there was also a glimmer of hope. “Canada has never called India out like this before,” he said. “The people behind this attack on Canadian sovereignty should be held accountable no matter how high-ranking they are in the Indian government.”

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Who is Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh leader Indian agents allegedly killed?

By Uday Rana Global News
Updated September 19, 2023 

WATCH: Taking a closer look at Hardeep Singh Nijjar, his killing, and the centre of this diplomatic storm.



As the House of Commons reconvened on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed Parliament that there were “credible allegations” of a “potential link” between “agents of the government of India” and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader who Trudeau described as a Canadian citizen.

As a consequence, an Indian diplomat was expelled from Canada.

The man at the centre of the diplomatic storm was gunned down in June this year, and the investigation remains open into his murder. On June 18, Nijjar, 45, was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside a vehicle outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara just before 8:30 p.m. on June 18.

The RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) initially sought two suspects described as “heavier-set males wearing face coverings.” However, they later said the men were not acting alone.
On Monday, Trudeau confirmed that authorities were investigating links between the murder and people linked to the Indian government. The Indian government has vehemently rejected the allegations.


World Sikh Organization of Canada calls on Canadian government to protect activists facing threats

Here is what we know so far.

Who is Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

Nijjar, who moved to Canada in February 1997 to be a plumber, was a key figure in the movement for an independent Khalistan — a separate homeland for Sikhs in the Indian subcontinent.

But for the Indian government, he was wanted for allegedly being a “mastermind/active member” of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), which the Indian government designates as a terrorist group.


5:12 Singh blasts Modi government over allegations India agents killed B.C. Sikh leader


Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Nijjar’s friend and fellow Sikh nationalist, had told Global News in June that Nijjar said that gang members had warned him Indian intelligence agents had put a bounty on his head.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also told Nijjar they had information that he was “under threat from professional assassins,” Pannun had said.

The 1980s and early 1990s in India saw an armed conflict between the Indian government and Sikh separatists in the Sikh-majority northern state of Punjab. Amid a crackdown on the insurgency, Nijjar’s brother was arrested by police in India. In 1995, Nijjar himself was arrested.

He claimed in a sworn affidavit to immigration officials that he was beaten and tortured for information about his brother. He said he secured a bribe, cut his hair short and escaped.

In 1997, Nijjar came to Canada, claiming he had been beaten and tortured by Indian police. In 1998, his refugee claim was denied. According to his immigration records, he used a fraudulent passport that identified him as “Ravi Sharma.”

“I know that my life would be in grave danger if I had to go back to my country, India,” he wrote in his affidavit, dated June 9, 1998.

His application was rejected, and 11 days later Nijjar married a B.C. woman who sponsored him to immigrate as her spouse.

On his application form, he was asked whether he was associated with a group that used or advocated “armed struggle or violence to reach political, religious or social objectives.”

He said “no,” but immigration officials considered it a marriage of convenience and rejected Nijjar’s application. Nijjar appealed to the courts and lost in 2001, but he later identified himself as a Canadian citizen.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada declined to comment to Global News at the time of that report, citing privacy legislation.

On Tuesday, immigration minister Marc Miller confirmed that Nijjar became a Canadian citizen on March 3, 2015. “I hope this dispels the baseless rumours that he was not a Canadian,” Miller said.

Protesters chant outside of the Consulate General of India office during a protest for the recent shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver on Saturday, June 24, 2023.
 THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns.
 

Nijjar ran a plumbing business in Surrey, B.C., and rose to become a prominent advocate for the creation of Khalistan — a separate Sikh nation.

He travelled around the world and called for a referendum on Khalistan and called for anti-Sikh violence in India to be recognized as “genocide.”

In 2014, a few months after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, took office, Indian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Nijjar. New Delhi described Nijjar as the “mastermind” of the militant group Khalistan Tiger Force.

He was accused of being involved in the 2007 bombing of a cinema in Punjab. A 2016 Interpol notice against him alleged he was a “key conspirator” in the attack. He was accused of recruiting and fundraising, a charge that Nijjar vehemently denied.

After Nijjar was shot dead, his supporters protested outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver.

“This act of violence was predictable and was foreseen. It is unacceptable for us,” Jatinder Singh Grewal, director of Sikhs for Justice, said.

Several people associated with Nijjar said he had expressed fears that he was being targeted and his life was under threat. Nijjar was said to be “very vocal” about threats that were being made to him “discreetly,” and other individuals associated with the gurudwara have also faced threats.

Last week, a referendum that Nijjar had been working on was held in Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara, where Nijjar served as president. The non-binding and unofficial vote was organized by Sikhs for Justice, a group that advocates for a Khalistani nation.

The group estimated more than 100,000 people attended the vote in Surrey.

What are Canadian leaders saying?

On Monday, leaders of all three major parties in Canada rose to address the matter in the House of Commons.

“Canada is a rule of law,” Trudeau told the House of Commons. “Our country, the protection of our citizens and defence of our sovereignty are fundamental.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told the House that if the allegations are proven true, they represent an “outrageous affront” to Canadian sovereignty. He called on the Indian government to cooperate with “utmost transparency”.

But the most emotional appeal came from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is the first Sikh-Canadian to lead a major Canadian political party.

Singh, who is banned from travelling to India, spoke in Punjabi in the House.

“All I want to say in Punjabi is everything we heard today, we all knew as children that the Indian government commits many atrocities. But we never thought we’d have to face this danger after coming here, to Canada. I want to say to everyone, that I am here,” he said.

“With whatever strength I have, I will not budge till justice is served in this case. I will not budge till every link is investigated and justice is served.”

With files from Global’s Stewart Bell, Elizabeth McSheffrey, Christa Dao, Darrian Matassa-Fung

AL JAZEERA 
EXPLAINER

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar whose killing triggered India-Canada tensions?

Ottawa and New Delhi expel diplomats as tensions escalate over the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In a tit-for-tat move, India has expelled a senior Canadian diplomat, hours after Ottawa expelled a top Indian official as tensions escalate between the two countries over the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this year.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described in parliament what he called credible allegations that India was connected to Nijjar’s assassination in British Columbia state in June.

KEEP READING

Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh arrested in India after manhunt

The Indian government dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and asked Canada instead to crack down on anti-India groups operating in its territory.

The row centres around the Sikh independence movement, commonly known as the Khalistan movement. India accuses Canada of sheltering Khalistani activists.

Here’s all you need to know:

What triggered the tensions?

Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population, three years after India had designated him as a “terrorist”.

Nijjar supported the demand for a Sikh homeland in India’s northern state of Punjab, the birthplace of the Sikh religion, which borders Pakistan. He was reportedly organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death.

Trudeau on Monday said any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen was “an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty”.

On Tuesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said allegations of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are “absurd and motivated”.

It said the “unsubstantiated allegations” sought to shift focus away from “Khalistani terrorists and extremists who have been provided shelter in Canada”.

Indian authorities announced a cash reward last year for information leading to Nijjar’s arrest, accusing him of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest in India.

A sign outside a Sikh temple after Nijjar’s killing in Surrey, British Columbia 
[File: Chris Helgren/Reuters]

Trudeau said he brought up Nijjar’s killing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in New Delhi last week. He said he told Modi that any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable and that he asked for cooperation in the investigation.

“In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter,” he said.
How did India respond?

The MEA dismissed the accusation that India was linked to Nijjar’s killing.

“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a ministry statement said.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministry said it had given a senior Canadian diplomat five days to leave the country, without disclosing his name or rank.

“The decision reflects the government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities,” it said.

The ministry had summoned Cameron MacKay, Canada’s high commissioner in New Delhi, to notify him of the move, it added.

Earlier, New Delhi urged Ottawa to take action against anti-Indian groups in Canada.

“Allegations of the government of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated,” it said, adding that similar accusations made by Trudeau to Modi had been “completely rejected”.

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

Here is what is known about Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the man at the centre of the India-Canada row.

Nijjar was born in 1977 in Jalandhar district in India’s northern state of Punjab and moved to Canada in 1997, where he worked as a plumber, according to the Khalistan Extremism Monitor of the New Delhi-based independent Institute for Conflict Management.

He was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh separatist group, according to India’s counter-terrorist, National Investigation Agency. New Delhi has listed BKI as a “terrorist organisation” and says it is funded by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, a charge Islamabad denies.



Nijjar later became chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) group and was “actively involved in operationalising, networking, training and financing” its members, according to a 2020 Indian government statement.

New Delhi officially categorised him as a “terrorist” in the same statement, saying he was involved in “exhorting seditionary and insurrectionary imputations” and “attempting to create disharmony among different communities” in the country.

For supporters demanding a so-called independent Sikh state of Khalistan, Nijjar was a prominent leader and a strong voice for the cause.

He was elected head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Surrey, the Vancouver suburb where he lived. He held that position at the time of his death.

Nijjar was shot dead outside the same gurudwara on the evening of June 18.

Hundreds of people protested outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver after his murder, alleging foreign hands were involved in his death, local media reported at the time.

What is the Sikh separatist movement?

Sikhism is a minority religion originating in northern India that traces its roots back to the 15th century and drew influences from both Hinduism and Islam.

Its adherents make up less than two percent of India’s 1.4 billion people but Sikhs are nearly 60 percent of the population in the northern state of Punjab, the faith’s heartland.

India won its independence in 1947 but immediately suffered through the blood-soaked Partition that divided the former British colony along religious lines.

Muslims fled to the newly formed nation of Pakistan while Hindus and Sikhs fled to India in the ensuing violence, which killed at least one million people.

The historical region of Punjab was split between the two countries and was wracked by some of the worst violence of Partition.

Since then, some Sikhs have called for the creation of “Khalistan”, a separate sovereign nation and “land of the pure” carved out of Punjab and governed by the faith’s precepts.

Those calls grew louder in subsequent decades as Punjab became one of the wealthiest states in India, owing to an agricultural revolution that dramatically lifted farm yields.

Who is Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh?

The separatist movement began as an armed rebellion in the late 1980s among Sikhs demanding a separate homeland. The violent movement lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by an Indian government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.


Hundreds of Sikh youths were also killed in police operations, many of which were later proven in courts to have been staged, according to rights groups.

In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, in Amritsar to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there. The operation killed about 400 people, according to official figures, but Sikh groups say thousands were killed.

The dead included Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, whom the Indian government accused of leading the armed rebellion.

On October 31, 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had ordered the raid on the temple, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots, in which Hindu mobs went from house to house across northern India, particularly New Delhi, pulling Sikhs from their homes, hacking many to death and burning others alive.
Canadian-based Sikh extremists were also accused of carrying out the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight, killing 329 people, for the Khalistan cause.

Is the movement still active?

There is no active rebellion in Punjab today, but the Khalistan movement still has some supporters in the state, as well as in the sizable Sikh diaspora overseas.

The Indian government has warned repeatedly over the years that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback. Modi’s government has also intensified the pursuit of Sikh separatists and arrested dozens of leaders from various outfits allegedly linked to the movement.

But Hartosh Bal, executive editor of The Caravan magazine in India, told Al Jazeera the Sikh separatist movement has been non-existent for decades.

“The Khalistan movement has a long history and during the 1980s, there was a violent military movement on Indian soil. But ever since – at least in India, in the state of Punjab, where the Sikhs are the majority – the Khalistan movement has been virtually non-existent, enjoys no political support and goes up and down depending on the attention the Indian government pays to it,” Bal said.

“This attention has gone up considerably since the Modi government came to power in 2014. It does have strong roots both in Canada and the UK, where things like referendums are held, but given that the vast majority of Sikhs are on Indian soil and are not participants in this referendum, these could have ideally been easily ignored.

“But the Modi government has consistently hyped up the Khalistani threat to India. I think, again, because it suits them domestically to talk about security threats to the Indian nation, rather than the actual measure of threat on the ground from the movement.”

How strong is the movement outside India?

India has been asking countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom to take legal action against Sikh activists. It has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2 percent of the country’s population.

Earlier this year, Sikh protesters pulled down the Indian flag at the country’s high commission in London and smashed the building’s window in a show of anger against the move to arrest Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old separatist leader who had revived calls for Khalistan and stirred fears of violence in Punjab.

Protesters also smashed windows at the Indian consulate in San Francisco and skirmished with embassy workers.

The MEA denounced the incidents and summoned the UK’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to lodge a protest against what it called the breach of security at the embassy in London.

The Indian government also accused Khalistan supporters in Canada of vandalising Hindu temples with “anti-India” graffiti and of attacking the offices of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa during a protest in March.

Last year, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a Sikh separatist leader and head of the Khalistan Commando Force, was shot dead in Pakistan.

AL JAZEERA

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Canada tried 'quiet diplomacy' with India before making accusation, UN ambassador says

CBC News
Sep 19, 2023
Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, called the government of India's response to allegations that it was involved in a killing on Canadian soil 'disappointing.' Rae, who also said Canada had nothing to gain by making the accusation, noted that the accusation was made based on 'very reliable information' that was also shared with India in what he called a 'quiet diplomacy process.'

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Why India fears the Khalistan movement and how Canada became embroiled in diplomatic spat over killing of Sikh separatist
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in happier times. Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images


THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 20, 2023

India and Canada have engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions as part of an escalating row over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

The expulsions follow claims by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there are “credible allegations” linking the Indian government of Narendra Modi with the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, a prominent member of the Khalistan movement seeking to create an independent Sikh homeland in the Indian state of Punjab, was shot dead on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.

With tensions between the two countries rising, The Conversation reached out to Mark Juergensmeyer – an expert on religious violence and Sikh nationalism – at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to bring context to a diplomatic spat few saw coming.
1. What is the Khalistan movement?

“Khalistan” means “the land of the pure,” though in this context the term “khalsa” refers broadly to the religious community of Sikhs, and the term “Khalistan” implies that they should have their own nation. The likely location for this nation would be in Punjab state in northern India where 18 million Sikhs live. A further 8 million Sikhs live elsewhere in India and abroad, mainly in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.

The idea for an independent land for Sikhs goes back to pre-partition India, when the concept of a separate land for Muslims in India was being considered.

Some Sikhs at that time thought that if Muslims could have “Pakistan” – the state that emerged through partition in 1947 – then there should also be a “Sikhistan,” or “Khalistan.” That idea was rejected by the Indian government, and instead the Sikhs became a part of the state of Punjab. At that time the boundaries of the Punjab were drawn in such a way that the Sikhs were not in the majority.

But Sikhs persisted, in part because one of the central tenets of the faith is “miri-piri” – the idea that religious and political leadership are merged. In their 500-year history, Sikhs have had their own kingdom, have fought against Moghul rule and constituted the backbone of the army under India’s colonial and independent rule.

In the 1960s, the idea of a separate homeland for Sikhs reemerged and formed part of the demand for redrawing the boundaries of Punjab state so that Sikhs would be in the majority. The protests were successful, and the Indian government created Punjabi Suba, a state whose boundaries included speakers of the Punjabi language used by most Sikhs. They now compose 58% of the population of the revised Punjab.

The notion of a “Khalistan” separate from India resurfaced in a dramatic way in the large-scale militant uprising that erupted in the Punjab in the 1980s. Many of those Sikhs who joined the militant movement did so because they wanted an independent Sikh nation, not just a Sikh-majority Indian state.

2. Why is the Indian government especially concerned about it now?

The Sikh uprising in the 1980s was a violent encounter between the Indian armed police and militant young Sikhs, many of whom still harbored a yearning for a separate state in Punjab

.
Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, seated center, with his followers in Amritsar, on April 17, 1984
. AP Photo/Sondeep Shanker

Thousands of lives were lost on both sides in violent encounters between the Sikh militants and security forces. The conflict came to a head in 1984 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched Operation Blue Star to liberate the Sikh’s Golden Temple from militants in the pilgrimage center of Amritsar and capture or kill the figurehead of the Khalistan movement, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He was killed in the attack, and Sikhs around the world were incensed that their sacred place was violated by police action. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in retaliation by Sikh members of her own bodyguard.

In recent years, several firebrand Sikh activists in India have reasserted the idea of Khalistan, and the Indian government fears a return of the violence and militancy of the 1980s. The government of Narendra Modi wants to nip the movement in the bud before it gets too large and extreme.

3. What is the connection between the Khalistan movement and Canada?

After the Sikh uprising was crushed in the early 1990s, many Sikh activists fled India and went to Canada, where they were welcomed by a large Sikh community – many of whom had been sympathetic to the Khalistan idea. A sizable expatriate community of Sikhs has been growing in the country since the early 20th century, especially in British Columbia and Ontario.

Sikhs have been attracted to Canada not only because of its economic opportunities but also because of the freedom to develop their own ideas of Sikh community. Though support for Khalistan is illegal in India, in Canada Sikh activists are able to speak freely and organize for the cause.

Though Khalistan would be in India, the Canadian movement in favor of it helps to cement the diaspora Sikh identity and give the Canadian activists a sense of connection to the Indian homeland.

4. Has the Canadian government been sympathetic to the Khalistan movement?

The diaspora community of Sikhs constitutes 2.1% of Canada’s population – a higher percentage of the total population than in India. They make up a significant voting block in the country and carry political clout. In fact, there are more Sikhs in Canada’s cabinet than in India’s.

Although Trudeau has assured the Indian government that any acts of violence will be punished, he also has reassured Canadians that he respects free speech and the rights of Sikhs to speak and organize freely as long as they do not violate Canadian laws.

5. What is the broader context of Canada-India relations?

The Bharata Janata Party, or BJP, of India’s Prime Minister Modi tends to support Hindu nationalism.

Recently, the Modi government used “Bharat” rather than “India” when referring to the country while hosting the G20 conference, attended by President Joe Biden, among other world dignitaries. “Bharat” is the preference of Hindu nationalists. This privileging, along with an increase in hate crimes, has led to an environment of fear and distrust among minorities, including Sikhs and Muslims, in India.

Considering the high percentage of Sikhs in Canada’s population, Trudeau understandably wants to assert the rights of Sikhs and show disapproval of the drift toward Hindu nationalism in India.

And this isn’t the only time that Trudeau and Modi have clashed over the issue. In 2018, Trudeau was condemned in India for his friendship with Jaspal Singh Atwal, a Khalistani supporter in Canada who was convicted of attempting to assassinate the chief minister of Punjab.

Yet both countries have reasons to try to move on from the current diplomatic contretemps. India and Canada have close trading ties and common strategic concerns with relationship to China. It is likely that, in time, both sides will find ways to cool down the tensions from this difficult incident.

Author


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Delhi finds few friends in furore over Canadian Sikh leader’s death

Anwar Iqbal Published September 20, 2023 
A mural features the image of late Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was slain on the grounds of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in June 2023, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on September 18. — Reuters

• India expels Canadian diplomat in tit-for-tat move; US, UK, Australia call for thorough investigation of Ottawa’s claim

• Washington ‘closely involved’ with gathering intel • Ex-Pakistan FM says India stands exposed

WASHINGTON: India on Tuesday expelled a Canadian diplomat, a day after after PM Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of being involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil.

“The concerned diplomat has been asked to leave India within the next five days,” it said in a statement. “The decision reflects Government of India’s growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities.”



The tit-for-tat actions sent relations between the two otherwise friendly nations plunging, even as Canada insisted it was not trying to provoke India, rather it wanted the issue to be addressed properly.

“The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that; we are not looking to provoke or escalate,” PM Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday.

Asked why Ottawa had spoken out now, Mr Trudeau said: “We wanted to make sure that we had a solid grounding in understanding what was going on … we wanted to make sure we were taking the time to talk with our allies.”



US ‘closely involved’

But since the Canadian PM’s speech before parliament on Monday, new information has come to light suggesting that the United States was ‘very closely’ involved in intelligence gathering that led authorities in Ottawa to conclude that Indian agents had been potentially involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia earlier this year.

Reuters quoted a senior Can­adian government source as saying: “We’ve been working with the US very closely, inc­luding on the public disclosure yesterday,” the source said.

The evidence in Canada’s possession would be shared “in due course”, the official said.

In Washington, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told journalists the United States was “deeply concerned about the allegations referenced” by Prime Minister Trudeau.

“We remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners. It is critical that Canada’s investigation proceed and the perpetrators be brought to justice,” she added.

Response from world capitals

But while New Delhi looked to go on the offensive against Canada, the response from other world capitals was measured and more pro-Ottawa than India would’ve liked.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday his government backs a Canadian investigation to determine whether India was involved in Nijjar’s killing.

“I think it’s incredibly important that we allow the Canadian authorities to conduct their investigation,” said Cleverly, adding it would be “unhelpful” to speculate on their outcome.



In Canberra, a spokesperson for Australian foreign minister Wong said Australia is “deeply concerned by these allegations and notes ongoing investigations into this matter”.

“We are closely engaged with partners on developments. We have conveyed our concerns at senior levels to India,” said the Australian official.

Australia & Canada are members of Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, along with US, UK & New Zealand.

Centre-stage at UNGA

Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, which has a large Sikh population. He supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistan state and was designated by India as a “terrorist” in July 2020.

Michael Kugelman, a scholar of South Asian affairs at Wilson Center, Washington, said the UN General Assembly, which is currently holding its 78th session in New York, “could become centre-stage for the India-Canada crisis”.

He noted that PM Trudeau is scheduled to address the session later this week. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, is not attending the session.

“We’ll see if Trudeau repeats his allegations against India. Though the UNGA meetings also provide an opportunity for backchannel talks to try to ease tensions,” he said.



Murtaza Haider, a professor of management at the Toronto Metropolitan University and an active member of Canada’s South Asian community, said the rift with India has more to do with Canada’s domestic politics than anything else.

“Trudeau is battling a declining approval rating and a rise in the popularity of Pierre Poilievre, the opposition leader.

The Punjabi Sikh community in Canada is a vibrant and sizeable community that exercises significant power in Canada’s electoral politics.“

“This may be an attempt to protect some swing ethnic ridings in the next elections, which are still a couple of years away,” Prof Haider added.

Tensions between India and Canada have been simmering over the unsolved slaying, and Indian unhappiness over how Ottawa has handled Sikh separatists.

Trudeau was in New Delhi last week for the G20 summit and met privately with his Indian counterpart, but his visit was a testament to the strained ties between their countries.

Canada also recently suspended negotiations for a free-trade agreement with India.

India exposed, says Bilawal

Commenting on the issue during an interaction with the media on Tuesday, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was pleased that India’s crimes on the international stage had been laid bare.

“India has been exposed before the world. How long will the international community, especially the West, continue to ignore such incidents and actions of India?

’’It is time for the international community to accept that India has become a rogue, Hindutva terrorist state,“ he said.

“Not only have we caught spies who were involved in terrorism in our country, they [India] have now been caught violating the sovereignty of a Nato-member state.

’’This is not only a violation of Canadian sovereignty, but international law and norms,“ Mr Bhutto-Zardari said.


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What does international law say about targeted killings?

Assassinations aren't just for rogue states and can

sometimes be justified. Sometimes

Mark Gollom · CBC News · 
A group of Sikh men speak informally to each other for a posed photograph.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen outside of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., on July 2, 2019. India has strongly denied any connection to his recent killing, following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegation on Monday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

It certainly wasn't the first time a government was accused of orchestrating a killing on foreign soil, but observers around the world were nonetheless shocked by Prime Minister's Justin Trudeau's allegation on Monday that India's leaders had a hand in killing a Canadian citizen earlier this year in B.C. 

India has strongly denied any connection to the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who had been labelled a terrorist by New Delhi over his support of an independent Khalistani state. 

Such killings are usually pinned on the likes of Saudi Arabia or Russia. 

But extra-territorial assassinations aren't just for rogue states and can sometimes even be justified under international law. Sometimes. 

What laws would it break?

If the Indian government did play a role in killing Nijjar, it would be a significant violation of Canada's sovereignty. 

"There is no question that this conduct is unlawful," said Leah West, an associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. "It is an unlawful violation of sovereignty, it's an unlawful exercise of the state's power inside Canada.

"It is really hard to think of examples that are more significant than a foreign state executing a Canadian citizen on Canadian territory for their own ends."

WATCH | Looking for answers in Nijjar's killing:

Richard Fadden, a former CSIS director, says Canada's desire for accountability around the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, is 'entirely reasonable.' But he says there are few options to actually hold India to account as the international system 'limits what we can do.'

If the allegations are true, India would be guilty of violating the basic rule that states are bound to respect each others' territorial sovereignty, said Dapo Akande, professor of public international law and co-director of Oxford University's Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict.

"Essentially what [Ottawa is] saying is, 'You've broken this by undertaking acts on the territory of Canada without the permission of Canada.'"

It would also violate the UN Charter, which says all members shall refrain "from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

That means if there's enough of a connection between the killers and "some sort of state apparatus in India … India itself could be held legally accountable," said Noah Weisbord, an associate law professor at McGill University and author of The Crime of Aggression: The Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents, and Autocrats.

How can such killings be justified?

Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden was shot and killed in 2010 in a Pakistani compound by U.S. Navy SEALs. Ten years later — in one of the most recent and high-profile extra territorials killings — it was the U.S. again that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike in Iraq. 

Israel too has acknowledged targeting Palestinian militants, mostly through drone or airstrikes. But it also is suspected of being responsible for killing top Iranian nuclear scientists in an effort to thwart that country's nuclear ambitions.

WATCH | 'Credible allegations' point to India:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says any foreign government involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is 'an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.'

Israel also kidnapped and eventually executed Adolf Eichmann, one of the key Nazis responsible for orchestrating the Holocaust, near his home in Argentina in 1960. (Argentina was outraged and the UN agreed the incident had violated its sovereignty.)

States generally agree, says Akande, that during an armed conflict, it is permissible to take the life of a combatant or someone who's taking direct part in that conflict.

In both those cases, the U.S. government argued that Bin Laden and Soleimani posed an imminent threat and that the killings were defensive and, therefore, justified under international law.

Yet they did raise questions by some human rights activists, who expressed concerns about those killings and targeted killings in general and whether they meet the threshold of self defence or an imminent threat. 

Another problem, says Weisbord, is that the targets aren't given an opportunity to defend themselves in open court.

"There's been no process to judge before they execute," he said. "So there's a real problem with extrajudicial killings from a human rights perspective and a fair process perspective."

Would India be able to justify it?

Simply put, no, according to Akande and West.

The allowance that states can take life when protecting the lives of others doesn't apply in Nijjar's case, says Akande, though the Indian government would likely disagree, having deemed the Sikh leader a terrorist. 

West notes that Canada is not in a conflict with India and India is not in an armed conflict with activists in Canada.

She says this case would be more analogous to the death of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by a team of Saudi officials inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. 

What legal recourse does Canada have?

Akande says Canada could take steps which would ordinarily violate its own obligations in response to India's alleged violation. 

Ottawa could opt to disregard this or that treaty, for instance, unless India pays compensation, punishs the killers or makes amends in some other way.

WATCH | PM not looking to 'provoke or escalate':
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is not looking to 'provoke or escalate' after he said in the House of Commons there were credible allegations linking India to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian who backed the creation of a Sikh homeland in India.

"That's part of the reparation," Akande said. 

Canada could also seek recourse through the International Cout of Justice (ICJ). For example, Canada and its allies recently took Iran to the ICJ over its responsibility for the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet and the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew in 2020.

In 2019, India accepted the jurisdiction of the ICJ, with some exceptions, Weisbord says. One of those exceptions includes disputes "relating to or connected with facts or situations of hostilities, armed conflicts."

"So I don't know if the court would even take jurisdiction in this case, because for the [ICJ] to have jurisdiction, both of the party candidates need to have accepted its jurisdiction prior to the conflict and not expressed a reservation."

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