CNN
 — 

The residence of a Canadian Sikh activist in Brampton, Ontario, was hit by gunfire on Monday, months after the assassination of one other activist despatched India-Canada relations into a spiral.

A bullet gap was found within the window of Inderjit Singh Gosal’s residence on Monday by building staff, in accordance to native police and the US-based group Sikhs for Justice, a bunch Gosal had been working with that advocates for a separate Sikh homeland.

“It appears that only one bullet hole was found but that is subject to change,” Peel Regional Police wrote in a press release.

The police mentioned an investigation was underway, including that whereas it was “unknown at this time if there is any relation to the group Sikhs for Justice, investigators will consider all possibilities.”

Sikhs for Justice believes Gosal could have been focused for his function in campaigning for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which might be often known as Khalistan and embrace components of India’s Punjab state.

The group, which helps the creation of Khalistan, mentioned in a press release that the bullet gap was discovered “days after Gosal announced the Khalistan Freedom Rally at the Indian Consulate Toronto on February 17.”

Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has lengthy been outlawed in India, the place painful reminiscences of a lethal insurgency by some Sikh separatists proceed to hang-out many Indian residents. But it garners a degree of public sympathy amongst some within the Sikh diaspora abroad, the place protected by free speech legal guidelines, activists can extra brazenly advocate for secession from India.

The motion gained worldwide prominence when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in September he had credible info linking the Indian authorities to the killing of outstanding Sikh chief and Khalistan supporter Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The Canadian citizen was gunned down by masked males final June exterior a Sikh temple in British Colombia.

The allegation outraged India, which has vehemently denied the declare, calling it “absurd and motivated.” The diplomatic fallout noticed tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from each international locations.

Weeks later, the United States accused an Indian authorities official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on  US soil.

Gosal – the person whose home was hit by gunfire in Ontario – is an in depth aide to Pannun, who’s the chief authorized counsel of Sikhs for Justice and is considered a terrorist by the Indian authorities.

A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian nationwide, Nikhil Gupta, of making an attempt to kill Pannun. US prosecutors say Gupta was performing on orders from an unnamed Indian authorities official. India’s authorities has denied any involvement within the alleged plot to kill Pannun.

Just sooner or later after Nijjar was killed in Canada, US prosecutors say Gupta allegedly advised an undercover legislation enforcement official posing as a hitman that Nijjar had additionally been one in every of his targets and that “we have so many targets.”

Following the invention of the bullet gap in his window, Gosal mentioned in a press release shared by Sikhs for Justice, “No amount of threats and violence can stop me from advocating for the liberation of Punjab from Indian occupation.”

CNN has reached out to the Indian authorities and Global Affairs Canada for remark.