Sikh activist's house attacked in Canada, no casualty reported
World
Gosal is a close associate of prominent Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun who is a US national
(AFP/Web Desk) – Shots have been fired at the home of a Sikh activist in Brampton, Ontario, police said on Monday, following a recent spat between Canada and India over assassination of another activist.
Constable Tyler Bell-Morena said Peel Regional Police were alerted by construction crews about what appeared to be “a bullet hole in a window of the home” of Inderjit Singh Gosal in the province of Ontario, and are investigating.
Gosal is also a close associate of prominent Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American Sikh activist in New York whom US authorities say was the target of a thwarted assassination plot in the US last year.
There were no injuries in the shooting as the home is under construction and currently unoccupied.
“We understand who this person is and his affiliations, but it’s just too early for us to speculate that there’s any connection” to other violence and threats, the police official said.
“We are obviously investigating it with all avenues in mind,” he added.
Pannun, writing on social media, called the incident a “drive-by shooting”.
According to CNN, the US-based group Sikhs for Justice believes Gosal may have been targeted for his role in campaigning for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of India’s Punjab state.
The group, which supports the creation of Khalistan, said in a statement that the bullet hole was found “days after Gosal announced the Khalistan Freedom Rally at the Indian Consulate Toronto on February 17.”
Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has long been outlawed in India, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many Indian citizens. But it garners a level of public sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where protected by free speech laws, activists can more openly advocate for secession from India.
The movement gained international prominence when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in September he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. He was gunned down by masked men last June outside a Sikh temple in British Colombia.
The allegation outraged India, which has vehemently denied the claim, calling it “absurd and motivated.” The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries.
After Trudeau went public with his allegations, India denied the charges and responded furiously, briefly curbing visas for Canadians and forcing Ottawa to withdraw diplomats.
Canada also suspended negotiations for a free-trade deal with India.
Earlier this month, a group of people shot at the British Columbia home of Simranjeet Singh, an associate of Nijjar. Two Canadian teens have been arrested for discharging a firearm, but a motive has not been determined by police, according to Canadian media.
Weeks later, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil.
A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, of trying to kill Pannun. US prosecutors say Gupta was acting on orders from an unnamed Indian government official. India’s government has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kill Pannun.
Just one day after Nijjar was killed in Canada, US prosecutors say Gupta allegedly told an undercover law enforcement official posing as a hitman that Nijjar had also been one of his targets and that “we have so many targets.”
Following the discovery of the bullet hole in his window, Gosal said in a statement shared by Sikhs for Justice, “No amount of threats and violence can stop me from advocating for the liberation of Punjab from Indian occupation.”
