They accused the Indian government of being responsible for the gunning down of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
\n Toronto
\nA few hundred members of Canada\u2019s Sikh community demonstrated outside the Indian consulate in Toronto on Saturday to protest the unsolved murder of one of their leaders last month in the Vancouver area.
\nThey 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.
\n\u201cWhen an Indian agency and system commit a crime, they have to be held accountable,\u201d Kuljeet Singh, spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, a US-based organisation behind the rally, told AFP.
\nNijjar, 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.
\nAnother protestor, Hakirt Singh, a lawyer, told AFP that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) \u201cshould investigate this murder\u201d as a political assassination.
\n\u201cWhen 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.\u201d
\nNijjar 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.
\nThe demonstrators, almost exclusively men, carried yellow flags with blue logos representing their separatist movement, and shouted \u201cKhalistan! Khalistan!\u201d
\nSetting off from the Toronto suburbs, they arrived in front of the Indian consulate, where they were greeted by around 50 members of the diaspora in support of the Indian government.
\n\u201cThey have a poster here calling to kill Indian diplomats. We are concerned because these groups have committed terrorist acts in the past and politicians are not taking actions,\u201d one of the counterdemonstrators, Vijay Jain, an IT consultant, told AFP.
\nA line of 20 policemen intervened to separate the two groups, and one Sikh protester was taken away after forcing down a barrier and running to the other side.
\nSince the murder of the Sikh leader, tensions have risen between Canada and India.
\nNew Delhi regularly accuses Ottawa of laxity in its handling of Sikh protesters in Canada.
\n\u201cWe have asked the Canadian government to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our diplomats,\u201d Arindam Bagchi, spokesman for India\u2019s foreign minister, said on Thursday.
\nCanada is home to the largest number of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab, India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They accused the Indian government of being responsible for the gunning down of Hardeep Singh Nijjar Toronto A few hundred members of Canada\u2019s Sikh community demonstrated outside the Indian consulate in Toronto on Saturday to protest the unsolved murder of one of their leaders last month in the Vancouver area. They accused the Indian government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-342261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n