yesterday, Canada PM Justin Trudeau said his country's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of a Canadian citizen, on June 18 2023, shot dead outside a Shik temple in Surrey, BC. today, not surprisingly, India expels Canadian diplomat, escalating tensions after Trudeau accuses India in Sikh’s killing
Speaking locally from Canada, this is a big topic and one that goes back several decades. This is basically two countries that both think they're bigger than they really are and every other major country in the world is too pre-occupied to care. But the actually history of Sikh separatist movements in India and Canada is quite long and has a dark history in both countries. India's prime minister was assassinated by a Sikh nationalist in the 80s and a small group of Canadian Sikh radicals blew up an Air India plane that left Canada. None of this is occurring in a vacuum. With that said, assassinating a citizen of another country in that country is a red line that India crossed (assuming this is true). And India does have a history of this stuff when it comes to Sikh nationalists so this isn't really that surprising. I will say that as someone who is also of Indian origin, the Indian community in Canada is like a bizarro version of the Indian community in the US. To put it bluntly, I felt the need to culturally expose my family and children to the Indian community in the US. I have no such desire to do the same in Canada.
I seem to recall Sikhs ran much of the strip club business in the Toronto area...but it's been a while since I observed this first hand.
Modi’s version of India pretty much opently discriminated against Sikhs and more so Muslims denying them housing etc. a Swedish journal and published the study. It’s pretty crazy The folks that immigrated here and the vast majority there are very good people, but the fascist govt in India may very well start ww3. assassinating a citizen in a first world country is batshit crazy but nothing that surprises me
India is a condundrum, beautiful in places a shithole in others....and they still have the caste system even thought it is supposed to be gone....one of the worse countries on the planet....so dirty. DD
Aftermath of an Assassination: Inside the India-Canada Crisis Nijjar’s assination near Vancouver, BC, has also highlighted the Modi government’s uncompromising attitude toward its critics, whether at home or overseas. Under the rule of his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, activists, academics and journalists—especially those belonging to other religions—complain of an atmosphere where contradicting official narratives can lead to harassment or legal sanction. Abroad, groups that disagree with Modi’s policies fear they’re increasingly being targeted for disruption or worse by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s main spy agency. Nowhere is that more true right now than in the Sikh diaspora, an archipelago of immigrant communities across the English-speaking world. In recent years, activists have organized unofficial overseas referendums to demonstrate support for a Khalistani state, something the Indian government views as an unacceptable provocation. Regardless of whether a role by India is ever substantiated in Nijjar’s murder, those communities have now received a chilling message. Parts of Surrey, 1 of 21 municipaities in metro Vancouver, BC, resemble a sort of Punjab on the Pacific. More than 150,000 of its roughly 600,000 residents are Sikh, one of the largest such communities in Canada. A sprawling expanse of single-family homes, wide roads and strip malls, Surrey is an easy place to find businesses with names such as 88 Jalebi Junction (a jalebi is a sugary snack beloved in India) and Sabzi Mandi Supermarket, named for the Hindi word for vegetables. Western countries are weighing Indian press reactions to Trudeau’s allegations carefully. Apart from the US, those that have addressed the matter publicly have made equivocal statements, calling for investigation but stopping well short of endorsing Canada’s claims. In an era of rising confrontation with China, no government wants to lose the chance at having India as a partner, nor jeopardize access to its growing economy. France, for example, hasn’t formally commented on the affair; a person familiar with Franco-Indian relations says that Paris is in the uncomfortable position of courting Modi as a security partner and as a customer for French weapons exports while growing increasingly concerned about his government’s illiberal tendencies. There are signs that the US, too, is looking to segregate the Nijjar matter from its broader relationship with India. When Blinken met on Sept. 28 with India’s minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the official summary of their discussion didn’t mention the killing or any euphemism for it. Still, the matter will be hard to ignore completely. The drone strikes of the US war on terror were conducted in minimally governed countries such as Yemen and Somalia and eliminated individuals for whom there was little sympathy in any major capital. Ordering a hit on the streets of a G-7 nation is another matter entirely. “This is a precedent which must be addressed, and there’s a strong interest in having the Indians agree to that principle,” says John Kirton, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto and the director of the G20 Research Group, which studies the economic bloc. There’s no indication so far that Canada will make public the specifics of its intelligence on the Nijjar killing ahead of a judicial process. The Trudeau government’s strong preference, the Canadian official says, is for the case to go through normal law-enforcement channels, followed by charges and a public trial—which could be compromised by the premature disclosure of information. If Canada’s allegations are accurate, such a proceeding could provide an unprecedented window on a state-sponsored assassination and on the shadowy mechanics of RAW’s overseas operations.
this murder-for-hire plot has spread to US soil. Prosecutors charge Indian man in attempted murder-for-hire plot against Sikh activist on US soil Authorities say Nikhil Gupta, 52, worked with an unnamed Indian official to set up a meeting with an undercover officer he believed to be a hitman to target the victim, a US citizen who is unnamed in the indictment but described as an attorney and vocal critic of the Indian government. The Indian official agreed to pay $100,000 to the undercover officer for the arranged murder. US officials familiar with the case told CNN the victim is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who runs a New York-based outfit called “Sikhs for Justice,” which has held referendums for a separate Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, that would include parts of India. The organization is considered unlawful in India, where its website is not accessible. Gupta has been charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. He was arrested in June of this year in the Czech Republic and held pursuant to a bilateral extradition treaty, authorities said.
