Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence recommend whose killing months in the past is on the centre of a widening breach among India and Canada, became referred to as a human rights activist through Sikh establishments and a crook through India`s Government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated on September 18 that his authorities became investigating “credible allegations” that Indian Government dealers had been related to the June 18 slaying, whilst Nijjar became gunned down out of doors a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia.

India has denied any position withinside the killing, calling the allegations absurd.

Nijjar, forty five whilst he died, became a outstanding member of a motion to create an unbiased Sikh fatherland referred to as Khalistan, and became establishing an unofficial referendum a few of the Sikh diaspora with the corporation Sikhs For Justice.

He additionally owned a plumbing commercial enterprise and served as president of a Sikh temple or gurdwara in suburban Vancouver, in which banners hung together along with his face selling the referendum on September 19. In a 2016 interview with the Vancouver Sun he answered dismissively to reviews in Indian media that he became suspected of main a terrorist cell.

“This is garbage — all of the allegations. I am residing right here 20 years, right? Look at my record. There is nothing. I am a tough worker. I personal my personal commercial enterprise withinside the plumbing,” Nijjar advised the newspaper. At the time, he stated he became too busy to participate in diaspora politics.

Following his death, the World Sikh Organisation of Canada referred to as Nijjar an outspoken supporter of Khalistan who “regularly led non violent protests in opposition to the violation of human rights actively taking location in India and in aid of Khalistan”.

Nijjar became a desired guy in India, which has for years visible Sikh separatists overseas as a safety threat.

In 2016, Indian media pronounced that Nijjar became suspected of masterminding a bombing withinside the Sikh-majority State of Punjab and education terrorists in a small town southeast of Vancouver. He denied the allegations.

In 2020, Indian government claimed Nijjar became a member of a banned militant organization and precise him a terrorist. That year, in addition they filed a crook case in opposition to him as farmers, many from Punjab, camped out on the rims of New Delhi to protest debatable agriculture laws. The Indian Government first of all attempted to discredit the protests through associating them with Sikh separatists, submitting some of such instances in opposition to Sikh activists in India and overseas.

Last year, Indian government accused Nijjar of involvement in an alleged assault on a Hindu priest in India and introduced a praise of about $16,000 for records main to his arrest.

The contemporary-day Sikh independence motion reaches returned to the Nineteen Forties however ultimately have become an armed insurgency that shook the usa withinside the Seventies and 1980s. In 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a raid to seize armed separatists taking safe haven in Sikhism`s holiest shrine.

Hundreds of people were killed in this attack, and two of Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards were killed shortly afterwards. Anti-Sikh riots broke out across India in response, with members of ethnic minorities being dragged from their homes and killed. The revolt was eventually put down in a crackdown that left thousands dead, but some Sikhs in northern India and the diaspora still support the goal of Sikh independence.

More recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government has cracked down on both non-Hindu human rights movements and dissent.

The activities of the Sikh diaspora have caused tensions between India and Canada for many years. Canada has the largest Sikh population outside of India, and India has repeatedly accused the country of tolerating "terrorists and extremists."

Canadian police say Nijjar was shot and killed as he left the parking lot of the Sikh temple where he was president of British Columbia. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

After the killing, lawyer and Sikhs for Justice spokesperson Gurpatwant Singh Panun said that Nijjar had been the target of threats as an activist. His killing was the second in two years of a prominent member of Canada's Sikh community.

Panun said he spoke to Nijjar on the phone the day before the killing, and Nijjar told him that Canadian intelligence had warned him that his life was in danger.

Almost a week after Nijjar's murder, about 200 demonstrators from Canada's Sikh community gathered and demonstrated outside the Indian Consulate General in Vancouver. Many protesters believed that Nijjar's killing was linked to his demand for an independent Sikh state.

"He was a loving, hard-working, family-oriented person," said Gurkeerat Singh, one of the protesters.

On September 18, British Columbia Sikh Gurudwara Council spokesperson Moninder Singh told Canadian broadcaster CTV that the outpouring of support for Nijjar after his death was due to , said it was an indication of how he was viewed in the community.

"It has shocked communities around the world, including in Punjab," Singh said. "The community is falling apart. There are very, very high emotions," Surrey MP Sukh Dhaliwal said days after the murder.