Unsolved murder of Sikh leader sparks duelling protests in Toronto

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down on June 18 in a suburb of Vancouver. Protesters accuse the Indian government of being responsible for his murder

Nijjar was a campaigner for the creation of an independent Sikh state and India had declared him a wanted terrorist

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Sikhs protesters for the independence of Khalistan scuffle with police in front of the Indian Consulate in Toronto, Canada on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:58am, 9 Jul 2023

A few hundred members of Canada’s Sikh community protested outside the Indian consulate in Toronto on Saturday to protest against the unsolved murder of one of their leaders last month in the Vancouver area.

They accused the Indian government of being responsible for the gunning down of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of a Sikh temple and campaigner for the creation of an independent Sikh state that supporters hope to call Khalistan.

“When an Indian agency and system commit a crime, they have to be held accountable,” Kuljeet Singh, spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, a US-based organisation behind the rally, told Agence France-Presse.

Sikhs protest for the independence of Khalistan in front of the Indian consulate in Toronto, Canada on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Nijjar, whom India had declared a wanted terrorist, was gunned down on June 18 in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver that is home to one of the largest Sikh populations in Canada.

Another protester, Hakirt Singh, a lawyer, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) “should investigate this murder” as a political assassination.

“When there is vandalism against a member of Parliament you see tweets and reactions from politicians. Here it is an assassination of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. That is foreign interference.”

Nijjar advocated for the creation of an independent Sikh state to be carved out of parts of northern India and perhaps part of Pakistan. India accused Nijjar of carrying out terrorist attacks in India, a charge he denied.

The demonstrators, almost exclusively men, carried yellow flags with blue logos representing their separatist movement, and shouted “Khalistan! Khalistan!”