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- By Nadine Yousif & Neal Razzell
- In Toronto and Surrey
Canada has accused India of being linked to the homicide of a Sikh chief on Canadian soil, fuelling a major rift between the 2 nations. Who was the person, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on the centre of these tensions?
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was born within the district of Jalandhar within the North Indian state of Punjab. As a younger man in 1997, he moved to Canada, the place he married, had two sons and labored as a plumber.
Settled within the province of British Columbia, he additionally made a reputation for himself as a vocal advocate for the creation of Khalistan – a separate homeland for Sikhs, who’re a non secular minority that makes up 2% of India’s inhabitants.
He had been labelled a terrorist by India, accused of, amongst different actions, being the “mastermind” behind the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), a banned militant group within the nation.
He was 45 years previous when he was shot and killed by two gunmen carrying darkish garments with hoods exterior a Sikh temple in a Vancouver suburb on a June summer time night this yr.
The bullets blew within the home windows of his gray pickup truck, eyewitnesses advised the BBC. Mr Nijjar was behind the wheel when he was hit.
Men who had been enjoying a sport of soccer close by mentioned they first thought they heard fireworks, earlier than realising it was the sound of gunshots.
Just a few gave chase and mentioned they noticed the suspects pace off in a automotive that had been ready for them.
Police mentioned Mr Nijjar died on the scene.
Those near him have mentioned he was warned by Canadian intelligence providers earlier than his demise that he was on a “hit list”.
India has all the time firmly denied any involvement in his killing, and referred to as the allegations by Mr Trudeau “absurd”.
To his supporters, Mr Nijjar – who turned a Canadian citizen in 2007 – was a peaceable advocate for Sikh independence in British Columbia and a person who cared deeply about his neighborhood.
A big memorial has been arrange for him exterior the Surrey Gurdwara doorways the place he served as president. His funeral was attended by a whole bunch.
“He was so full of energy,” Doug McCallum, the previous mayor of Surrey, told CityNews Vancouver after his death. “I remember he used to pester me all the time to get a volleyball for the youth in the community and to widen the walkway so that people can get exercise.”
But in India, he was needed underneath India’s Terrorist Act for a number of instances, together with a 2007 cinema bombing in Punjab that killed six individuals and injured 40, and the 2009 assassination of Sikh Indian politician Rulda Singh.
More on the Canada-India rift:
In 2020, an announcement by the Indian authorities accused him of being actively concerned in “operationalising, networking, training and financing” KTF members.
He had additionally been accused of working terrorist coaching camps in British Columbia for supporters prepared to hold out assaults in India.
At the time, India reported its issues about Mr Nijjar to Canadian authorities.
Canadian police mentioned in 2016 that they have been conscious of the allegations levelled towards Mr Nijjar, however he was by no means charged in Canada.
Mr Nijjar himself wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that yr in regards to the allegations.
Watch: Trudeau accuses India in killing of Canadian Sikh
In the letter, reported on by Canadian media on the time, he identifies himself as a “Sikh nationalist who believes in and supports Sikhs’ right to self-determination and independence of Indian occupied Punjab through a future referendum”.
But he added: “I have never believed in, supported or been involved in any violent activity.”
At the time of his demise, he had been planning a non-binding referendum for Sikhs dwelling in British Columbia on the creation of an unbiased state in India – a part of a worldwide marketing campaign by US-based group Sikhs for Justice, which is banned in India.
On the day he was killed, he gave a speech calling on the members of his temple to vote within the referendum, saying it will ship a powerful message to the Indian authorities.
The Sikh separatist motion has lengthy been a supply of pressure within the Canada-India relationship, which analysts have mentioned is now at an all-time low.
India has strongly opposed the Khalistan motion. All mainstream political events, together with in Punjab, have denounced violence and separatism.
The demand for Khalistan peaked in India within the Nineteen Eighties with an armed insurgency, which was later crushed. Thousands of individuals have been killed in the course of the violence.
The motion additionally resulted in two of probably the most controversial moments in Indian historical past.
Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple – the holiest web site for Sikhs – to flush out armed separatists who have been sheltering within the complicated. The operation, ordered by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, resulted in lots of deaths and precipitated injury to the temple.
Just a few months later, she was shot useless by two of her Sikh bodyguards who have been upset together with her orders. Her demise led to days of rioting in Delhi, wherein hundreds of Sikhs have been killed.
But the motion shouldn’t be distinguished in Punjab now, and several other teams vocally oppose it.
Its roots in each Canada and Britain may also be traced again to the Nineteen Eighties, as diaspora teams reacted to the occasions unfolding in India.
The subject got here to a head in 1985 when a bomb exploded on an Air India flight from Toronto to London, killing all 329 individuals on board.
After a prolonged investigation, two Sikh separatists in British Columbia have been acquitted of homicide and conspiracy prices in 2005. A 3rd man was discovered responsible of manslaughter for his function in making the bomb.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly accused Canada of not doing sufficient to quell Sikh protests and “anti-India” actions in Canada.
Many supporters of Khalistan in Canada preserve that the motion is peaceable, and that they’ve been a goal of disinformation campaigns and harassment by India.
Other Sikhs have distanced themselves from the separatist motion and mentioned that it doesn’t characterize the view of the vast majority of Sikhs within the nation.
Ujjal Dosanjh, a Sikh Canadian and a former Premier of British Columbia, mentioned in an interview with BBC Newsday that he doesn’t imagine Mr Nijjar was a distinguished determine within the world Khalistan motion, calling him a “small fry”.
Gurpreet Singh, a British Columbia-based journalist and radio host who has interviewed Mr Nijjar up to now, mentioned he’s sceptical of India’s claims towards the murdered Sikh chief.
“The Indian government has established that he was a terrorist, but on what basis? He was never convicted on any court of law. He has no criminal record in Canada,” Mr Singh advised the BBC.
The journalist, who describes himself as a secular Indian and who doesn’t help the Khalistan motion, mentioned he remembered Mr Nijjar as a “very soft spoken” one who was lively in the area people.
“Nobody saw him spew venom against anyone or be angry,” he mentioned. “You may disagree with him on (Khalistan) … but he had every right to ask for it.”
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