Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has frustrated New Delhi.
“Because there is freedom of speech, to make threats and intimidate diplomats, I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Jaishankar told reporters on Friday evening in Washington.
Relations between India and Canada have been tense of late, mostly due to the presence of Sikh separatists in Canada who have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India. Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents may have had a role in the June murder of Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was labeled a “terrorist” by India.
New Delhi dismissed the allegations as absurd. Washington has urged India to cooperate with Canada in the murder probe.
In 2018, Trudeau assured India that Canada would not support anyone trying to revive a separatist movement in India, while repeatedly saying that he respects the right to free speech and assembly of protesters to demonstrate. Canada is home to an influential Sikh community, and Indian leaders say some fringe groups there remain sympathetic to the cause of an independent Sikh state. The cause hardly has any support in India.
Source: eNCA
In other news – AKA’s mother doubts they’ll ever know who ordered the hit on her son
Lynn Forbes has said that she believes some details around her son AKA’s murder will always remain a mystery. Glammy – as she is affectionately known – was speaking at the Metropolitan Thematic Media Roundtable on Wednesday, 27 September.
AKA, real name Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane were gunned down on 10 February outside Wish on Florida road in Durban. Read more
