India cautions its citizens of hate, violence in Canada
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The federal government of India is warning its residents in Canada about what it calls a pointy enhance in hate crimes, sectarian violence and “anti-India actions.”
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However the head of a Sikh group based mostly in Mississauga, Ont., stated the allegations in a press release issued Friday by India’s Exterior Affairs Ministry have been directed at peaceable Sikh political activism in Canada, and have been baseless.
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The Indian authorities stated within the assertion that it has taken upthe alleged incidents with Canadian authorities and requested an investigation.
“The perpetrators of those crimes haven’t been delivered to justice up to now in Canada,” stated the assertion, which doesn’t present info on the place the alleged incidents occurred.
It stated that in view of the “rising incidences of crimes,” Indian nationals and college students in Canada are suggested to train due warning and stay vigilant.
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Nobody from International Affairs Canada was obtainable to reply to a request for touch upon the declare from India’s authorities, and RCMP headquarters in Ottawa didn’t instantly present a response.
Balpreet Singh, spokesman for the World Sikh Group, stated the assertion is “utterly political” and there’s no proof of any rise in sectarian violence or extremism concentrating on Indian nationals or college students in Canada.
He stated a Hindu temple was vandalized with graffiti in Toronto final week, however police there have up to now not linked that incident to “anti-India actions.”
“My group and different organizations condemn any vandalism of anywhere of worship. It’s unacceptable, so we hope that whoever is accountable is dropped at justice,” Singh stated.
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He stated the Indian authorities’s claims could also be in response to a so-called “Khalistan referendum” held in Brampton, Ont., on the creation of an unbiased Sikh homeland.
Singh stated tens of 1000’s of Sikhs solid their votes in that effort, organized by Sikhs for Justice.
Comparable referendums are being held around the globe, he stated, with votes anticipated to happen in Vancouver and Calgary.
Singh stated the referendums have been a menace to the Indian authorities as Sikhs gathered to assist their objective of an unbiased homeland.
“Jews in America performed a key position within the formation and assist of Israel,” he stated, including that India broke from British rule following activism that concerned folks in North America within the early 1900s.
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Singh stated different current gatherings organized by Sikhs have been maligned.
In June, members of Ottawa’s Sikh group known as for an investigation after Parliament Hill was evacuated and two males have been arrested at an occasion to commemorate the 1984 bloodbath of Sikhs in India.
Police apologized and launched the members of a bunch that organized the occasion after concluding no public security menace had been made.
The bloodbath of Sikhs in India was linked to the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, after the Indian military raided the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the place militants had occupied Sikhism’s holiest shrine.