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
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.
“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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment