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The Sikh separatist whose killing in British Columbia this summer time has abruptly set off a serious diplomatic dispute between Canada and India was a outstanding advocate of the creation of an unbiased nation, Khalistan, that would come with elements of India’s Punjab State.
The separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, had moved to Canada within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, in keeping with Indian information experiences, after a interval during which the Indian authorities was cracking down on the Sikh motion.
A long time later, the Indian authorities declared him a terrorist, accusing him of plotting a violent assault in India linked to his advocacy. And in June, two masked assailants killed him in entrance of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, a metropolis on the border with Washington.
Mr. Nijjar was born within the district of Jalandhar within the North Indian state of Punjab. In Canada, he married, had two sons, labored as a plumber and have become the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a temple in Surrey, in 2020.
Earlier than in the end gaining entry to Canada, the Canadian information outlet World Information reported, Mr. Nijjar had made an unsuccessful try to maneuver to the nation: submitting an utility as a refugee, which the Canadian authorities stated was partly fabricated, and, 11 days later, marrying a lady who sponsored him, an try the federal government additionally rejected.
He obtained his citizenship in March 2015, Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, stated in a post on X, the location previously referred to as Twitter. “I hope this dispels the baseless rumors that he was not a Canadian,” Mr. Miller added.
In an open letter in 2016, Mr. Nijjar declared: “I’m a Sikh nationalist who believes in and helps Sikhs’ proper to self-determination and independence of Indian occupied Punjab by a future referendum.”
The Indian authorities declared Mr. Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, saying it had proof that he was “concerned in exhorting seditionary and insurrectionary imputations and in addition making an attempt to create disharmony amongst totally different communities in India.” The federal government stated he led a terrorist group banned in India, Khalistan Tiger Power.
In a separate grievance in 2018, India’s premier investigative company accused him of “conspiring and planning to hold out a serious terrorist assault in India.” It additionally alleged that he deliberate to violently assault gatherings of the nationalist right-wing group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Final 12 months, Indian information retailers reported that an Indian investigative company had supplied a $12,000 reward for his arrest.
A Canadian journalist to whom Mr. Nijjar gave his final interview, Gurpreet Singh, painted a unique image, chatting with the unbiased Indian information outlet The Wire about a few of Mr. Nijjar’s neighborhood actions as a spiritual chief.
Mr. Nijjar held particular prayers for “Muslims killed within the Christchurch bombings in 2019 in New Zealand,” Mr. Singh stated, and for Indigenous kids after the invention of unmarked graves of scholars at Canadian residential faculties. Mr. Nijjar, he stated, additionally argued for the discharge of a detained Indian human rights defender who used a wheelchair.
In Punjab, politicians and a journalist stated that regardless of India’s fees in opposition to him, Mr. Nijjar and his motion had been little recognized.
“He went away a few years in the past, and no person both remembers him right here nor do they speak about him,” stated Raman Arora, a legislator from the governing celebration in Jalandhar. “The Khalistan motion has been lifeless right here for many years.”
A veteran Punjabi journalist, Jagtar Singh, additionally stated that Mr. Nijjar “was and is completely unknown right here” and that, in a long time of masking Punjab, he “had by no means heard of or about him.”
Vineet Joshi, a Bharatiya Janata chief in Punjab, agreed that Mr. Nijjar was little recognized within the area as we speak, and he blamed the Canadian authorities for encouraging individuals who harbored sentiments that he referred to as anti-India.
“Canada has turn into a hub of Khalistan actions, anti-India and a conspiracy to interrupt India,” Mr. Joshi stated. “ There’s freedom of speech there — no drawback. However you can’t speak concerning the disintegration of one other nation. Now, when Indian authorities increase objections, they’re ignored by the Canadians.”
He additionally had a message for Canada: “They should perceive that this isn’t the identical India. It’s a lot stronger below the management of Modi.”
Again in British Columbia, at a memorial on Monday night time for Mr. Nijjar, his son Balraj Singh Nijjar referred to as on the Canadian prime minister to rally with allies and “put extra strain” on the Indian authorities. Mr. Nijjar’s loss of life continues to be a recent wound for the household, he added, chatting with reporters exterior the temple.
“He had even referred to as house like 5 minutes earlier than it occurred to get dinner prepared,” his son stated. “It was sort of an enormous shock.”
Vjosa Isai contributed reporting from Toronto.
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