NEW DELHI: Indian authorities on Sunday said they had summoned the top Canadian diplomat in New Delhi after Sikh protesters gathered outside India’s diplomatic mission in Canada.
As per the Canadian media reports, hundreds of people gathered outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Saturday over India’s hunt for fugitive Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh.
The Indian foreign ministry summoned Canada’s high commissioner on Saturday “to convey our strong concern regarding the actions of separatist and extremist elements against our Consulates and diplomatic Mission in Canada this week”.
“It is expected that Canada’s government will ensure measures for the safety of our diplomats and security of our consolates so that they can perform their normal diplomatic functions,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.
A search for a radical Sikh preacher, Singh, has lasted over a week, with mobile internet cut and gatherings of over four people banned in several parts of the northern state of Punjab. About 100 people have been arrested.
Indian launches crackdown against Khalistan supporters
Singh got famous in recent months, demanding the creation of a separate Sikh homeland, ‘Khalistan’, and with his hardline interpretation of Sikhism at rallies in rural pockets of Punjab.
Twitter has blocked Indian users of the accounts of several prominent Sikh Canadians who criticized the crackdown, including MP Jagmeet Singh, reportedly following Indian government requests.
According to media reports, the Twitter accounts of many Punjab-based journalists and prominent members of the Sikh community have also been withheld.
Last week, India also summoned the most senior British diplomat after some Khalistan supporters entered and vandalized the Indian High Commission in London.
India also lodged a “strong protest” with the US State Department and the US embassy in New Delhi after men smashed doors and windows at the Indian consulate in San Francisco.
Punjab — which is about 58% Sikh and 39% Hindu — was rocked by a violent separatist movement for Khalistan in the early 1990s and 1980s in which thousands of people died.
