Inderjeet Singh Gosal says he’s not afraid to die for an unbiased Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab area.
The 35-year-old’s declaration sounds incongruous as he sits in his snug house in Toronto’s suburbs. However after the assassination of his predecessor as head of the Khalistan motion, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chance is actual.
“I do know what I signed up for, demise doesn’t scare me,” Gosal stated. “India’s threats or any assassination makes an attempt wouldn’t cease my effort for . . . Khalistan.”
This week Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, expelled six Indian diplomats, together with the excessive commissioner, due to their alleged involvement within the killing of Nijjar, who was gunned down in Vancouver in June 2023.
Trudeau on Monday stated: “We are going to by no means tolerate the involvement of a international authorities in threatening and killing Canadian residents on Canadian soil, a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada’s sovereignty and of worldwide regulation.”
India, which sees the Khalistan activists as terrorists, has denied any involvement and expelled six Canadian diplomats in response. It accuses Ottawa of tolerating violent extremism that has price the lives of its residents.
India has levelled the identical accusation on the US. Final week, federal prosecutors charged an Indian authorities official with orchestrating a plot to homicide a Sikh activist in New York Metropolis. India has designated that activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a terrorist below its Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act.
The tit-for-tat expulsions between India and Canada are the most recent episode within the more and more fraught relations between Ottawa and New Delhi over the actions of Canada’s massive Sikh group.
The motion for a sovereign Sikh state referred to as Khalistan dates again to India’s independence from Britain in 1947 and gained momentum after anti-Sikh killings within the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984.
Sikhs reminiscent of Gosal describe the violence as a “genocide” that pressured hundreds to flee India, many to Canada. Some 771,790 Canadians recognized as belonging to the Sikh religion within the 2021 census, making it the most important Sikh group exterior India.
Canada’s relations with India have soured in recent times as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grow to be more and more essential of what he says is Ottawa’s failure to clamp down on Sikh extremism.
The worst mass homicide in Canadian historical past, the bombing of an Air India flight travelling from Montreal to London in June 1985, has been blamed on Sikh extremists. All 329 individuals on board have been killed. Two pro-Khalistan diaspora Sikhs have been charged within the incident however later acquitted.
Whereas the vast majority of Canadian Sikhs are peaceable or not engaged within the Khalistan motion, Ottawa has listed different Sikh teams reminiscent of Babbar Khalsa Worldwide and the Worldwide Sikh Youth Federation as terrorist organisations.
The rift additionally highlights the advanced nature of diaspora politics in Canada.
“We’re a migrant nation, and diaspora politics is an actual side of Canadian politics,” stated Colin Robertson, a former diplomat who’s vice-president of the Canadian International Affairs Institute in Ottawa. “This complicates our international coverage since you all the time must make allowance to minority teams. Typically it’s a must to flip a blind eye to excessive views, because it has an influence on numerous ridings [constituencies].”
India has lengthy pleaded with Canada to curb behaviour it considers a terrorist risk and which Ottawa sees as permissible political activism.
Pannun admitted to Indian media final yr that he posted flyers exterior the Sikh temple close to Vancouver the place Nijjar was killed that learn “Kill India” and featured names and pictures of Indian diplomats.
In flip, Canada has alleged rising Indian interference in its Sikh communities. That got here to a head final yr when Trudeau accused the Modi authorities of being concerned within the deadly taking pictures of Nijjar.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Monday warned Canadians about suspected Indian involvement in “critical felony exercise”, together with drive-by shootings, house invasions, violent extortion and even homicide. The Indian authorities denies any involvement.
A public inquiry that has been working since final yr has additionally heard proof that India immediately interfered in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 basic elections.
Former Canadian intelligence agent Phil Gurski stated the inquiry highlighted how Trudeau’s authorities had both ignored, performed down or repeatedly missed warnings of international meddling in Canadian life, whether or not political or in diaspora communities.
“Canada’s intelligence group just isn’t glad,” he stated. “They’ve been saying this for some time.”
Gurski stated Canada was caught between world pressures from superpowers China and India, and native politics and safety issues. It’s also conscious India is strategically necessary for the 5 Eyes alliance of the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
“The political energy of Sikh diaspora is actual,” he stated. “Trudeau may kiss the Sikh vote goodbye in the event that they did favours for India, like sending a needed separatist again. Canada doesn’t need to upset the diaspora vote, they depend on it.”
For Gosal, the claims made final week about Indian authorities involvement in Nijjar’s demise got here as no shock.
“We knew it was India from the minute they killed Nijjar. We knew there was a risk or it was harmful, however we didn’t suppose it might go this far, that they’d kill a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”
He claimed that in February, months after he took over management of the Khalistan motion, a bullet was fired right into a window at a web site run by his development enterprise. An Indian account on X had posted concerning the taking pictures earlier than police arrived.
In August, native police referred to as him to warn he was the goal of a homicide plot, he stated. “All that is completely tied to the federal government of India,” stated Gosal. “They’re posting tweets about it, overtly making threats. They’re not attempting to cover it.”
