A small however vocal group of protesters gathered throughout the road from the Khalsa Diwan Society gurdwara in South Vancouver Saturday to protest the presence of Indian consulate officers on the temple.
The event was the primary of two “consular camps” scheduled by the Indian consulate on the gurdwara. The occasions are supposed to offer seniors of Indian descent with a chance to satisfy with officers and full administrative duties with out having to go to the downtown consulate.
However in opposition to the backdrop of allegations from Canadian officers that the Indian authorities has been waging a marketing campaign of violence and intimidation focusing on Sikh separatists in Canada, protesters say the
Ajaypal Singh, one of many roughly two dozen protesters, advised CTV Information these gathered imagine Indian officers shouldn’t be allowed into Sikh temples.
“We wish the embassies to be shut down and we wish the Indian consulate to not interact in Sikh gurdwaras,” Singh mentioned.
He referenced the Canadian authorities’s allegation that Indian diplomats gathered details about Indian nationals and Canadian residents in Canada, then handed that info to the Indian authorities in New Delhi, which allegedly works with a legal community with hyperlinks to homicides, assassination plots, coercion and different violent crimes in Canada.
These allegations prompted Canada to expel six Indian diplomats final month, together with excessive commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma.
“Mr. Sanjay Verma, who was expelled, he’s saying in India that ‘we now have life threats from Sikhs,'” mentioned Singh. “Alternatively, they’re coming to our gurdwaras to conduct their embassy enterprise. I imply, that is the peak of hypocrisy.”
Tensions between Canada and India have been heightening for greater than a 12 months, because the June 2023 capturing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar exterior a Surrey gurdwara.
Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and a distinguished activist for the creation of an impartial Sikh homeland often known as Khalistan, which might be situated in what’s presently India’s Punjab state. The Canadian authorities alleges that the federal government of India was concerned in Nijjar’s demise.
India has denied all the allegations in opposition to it.
Forward of Saturday’s occasion, the B.C. Supreme Courtroom granted an order requested by the Khalsa Diwan Society making a 50-metre “buffer zone” across the gurdwara out of concern for “intense protests.”
“The society expects that the consular camps … will draw intense protests from people who imagine that every one Indian consular places of work ought to be shut down in Canada, and that consular officers shouldn’t be allowed to enter the Ross Avenue Gurdwara in furtherance of official enterprise on behalf of the Authorities of India,” the courtroom paperwork say.
The courtroom order prohibits protesting, blocking the sidewalks or intimidating anybody making an attempt to enter the property inside 50 metres of the roads surrounding the temple from 8 a.m. to six p.m.
A second consular camp is scheduled for Nov. 16.
With information from The Canadian Press
