After receiving internet threats connected to the pro-Khalistan ‘Kill India’ campaign to picket it, Canadian federal security agencies increased security at the residence of India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa. A senior Indian official contrasted the latest internet threat for August 15 to the earlier July 8 campaign for rallies at India’s missions in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver and said that the latter was a “escalation.” Upon receiving the most recent personal threat, a senior Indian official declared that separatist groups had “crossed a line.”
An official acknowledged that Canadian authorities, from the country’s foreign ministry Global Affairs Canada to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP, charged with diplomatic security, and local police forces, have been “very responsive” to the increased threat perception even as India has formally expressed its worries ahead of the latest threat from the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ to “Besiege Indian Missions”.
When they met on July 14 in Jakarta for the ASEAN ministerial, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar brought up the ongoing threat against Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly of Canada. After the meeting, he tweeted, “Underlined the significance of safeguarding our diplomats’ security.
Encouragement to violence must also be vigorously opposed. In response, Joly stated that “Canada takes extremely seriously its responsibilities under the Vienna Convention on the safety of diplomats.”
Threats from SFJ have grown since its leading member in British Columbia, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed on June 18 in Surrey’s Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara Sahib parking lot. The ‘Kill India’ posters that specifically named the high commissioner of India, Sanjay Kumar Verma, and the consul generals of India in Toronto and Vancouver resulted from this. India is to blame according to SFJ for his “assassination”.
