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NEW DELHI (AP) — Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate whose killing two months in the past is on the middle of a widening breach between India and Canada, was known as a human rights activist by Sikh organizations and a prison by India’s authorities.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned Monday that his authorities was investigating “credible allegations” that Indian authorities brokers have been linked to the June 18 slaying, when Nijjar was gunned down outdoors a Sikh cultural middle in Surrey, British Columbia.
India has denied any role within the killing, calling the allegations absurd.
A SEPARATIST AND A PLUMBER IN CANADA
Nijjar, 45 when he died, was a distinguished member of a motion to create an independent Sikh homeland referred to as Khalistan, and was organizing an unofficial referendum among the many Sikh diaspora with the group Sikhs For Justice.
He additionally owned a plumbing enterprise and served as president of a Sikh temple or gurdwara in suburban Vancouver, the place banners hung together with his face selling the referendum on Tuesday. In a 2016 interview with the Vancouver Sun he responded dismissively to stories in Indian media that he was suspected of main a terrorist cell.
“This is garbage — all the allegations. I am living here 20 years, right? Look at my record. There is nothing. I am a hard worker. I own my own business in the plumbing,” Nijjar informed the newspaper. At the time, he mentioned he was too busy to participate in diaspora politics.
Following his loss of life, the World Sikh Organization of Canada known as Nijjar an outspoken supporter of Khalistan who “often led peaceful protests against the violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan.”
INDIA CALLED HIM A MILITANT; HE DENIED IT
Nijjar was a wished man in India, which has for years seen Sikh separatists overseas as a safety menace.
In 2016, Indian media reported that Nijjar was suspected of masterminding a bombing within the Sikh-majority state of Punjab and coaching terrorists in a small metropolis southeast of Vancouver. He denied the allegations.
In 2020, Indian authorities claimed Nijjar was a member of a banned militant group and designated him a terrorist. That yr, additionally they filed a prison case in opposition to him as farmers, many from Punjab, camped out on the perimeters of New Delhi to protest controversial agriculture legal guidelines. The Indian authorities initially tried to discredit the protests by associating them with Sikh separatists, submitting numerous such instances in opposition to Sikh activists in India and overseas.
Last yr, Indian authorities accused Nijjar of involvement in an alleged assault on a Hindu priest in India and introduced a reward of about $16,000 for info resulting in his arrest.
INDIA’S WAR AGAINST SEPARATISM
The trendy Sikh independence motion reaches again to the Nineteen Forties however ultimately turned an armed insurgency that shook the nation within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. In 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a raid to seize armed separatists taking refuge in Sikhism’s holiest shrine.
The raid killed a whole lot of individuals, and two of Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her shortly after. In response, anti-Sikh riots passed off throughout India by which members of the minority have been dragged out of their houses and killed. The insurgency was ultimately suppressed in a crackdown throughout which 1000’s of individuals have been killed, however the purpose of Sikh independence nonetheless has assist amongst some in northern India and within the Sikh diaspora.
More not too long ago, the Hindu nationalist-led authorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cracked down on each non-Hindu rights actions and dissidents.
Sikh diaspora activism has been a supply of rigidity between India and Canada for years. Canada has the biggest inhabitants of Sikhs outdoors India, and India has repeatedly accused it of tolerating “terrorists and extremists.”
NIJJAR WAS SHOT AT A TEMPLE
Canadian police mentioned Nijjar was shot as he was leaving the car parking zone of the Sikh temple the place he served as president in British Columbia. He suffered a number of gunshot wounds and died on the scene.
After the killing, a lawyer and spokesperson for Sikhs For Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, mentioned Nijjar had been a goal of threats due to his activism. His killing was the second in two years of a distinguished member of the Sikh neighborhood in Canada.
Pannun mentioned he had spoken to Nijjar by telephone the day earlier than he was killed and that Nijjar had informed him that Canadian intelligence had warned him that his life was in danger.
CANADA’S SIKH COMMUNITY RALLIES BEHIND HIM
Nearly per week after Nijjar’s slaying, about 200 protesters from Canada’s Sikh neighborhood gathered in entrance of the Indian Consulate in Vancouver to display. Many of the protesters have been satisfied that Nijjar’s killing was linked to his requires an impartial Sikh state.
“He was a loving man, a hard-working man, a family man,” mentioned Gurkeerat Singh, one of many protesters.
On Monday, Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the British Columbia Sikh Gurdwara Council, informed Canada’s CTV that the wave of assist for Nijjar seen after his loss of life was a sign of how he was seen in the neighborhood.
“It shook the community across the entire world, including in Punjab,” Singh mentioned.
“The community is shattered. There are very, very high emotions,” Sukh Dhaliwal, a member of Parliament who represents Surrey, mentioned days after the killing.
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This story has been edited to appropriate that the insurgency was within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties.
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Cohen reported from Bangkok.
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