'In a state of panic': Worried Sikh community in India wants ease in tensions with Canada

By Anadolu staff

NEW DELHI (AA) - The Sikh community in India has called for calm as tensions between New Delhi and Ottawa over a Sikh leader's death in Canada has inflamed bilateral relations.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's bombshell accusation of Indian involvement in the June 18 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia has escalated tensions, with both countries having expelled each other's diplomats.

India, which angrily rejected the allegation as “absurd,” has also stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens due to "security threats."

Trudeau, however, says he was not looking to provoke India, urging Indian officials to cooperate with the investigation into the killing.

The Khalistan movement for an independent Sikh state in India peaked in the 1980s. It was quelled by force, and most of its leaders are now said to be based in Canada, Australia and the UK.

Back home, the Sikh community has warned against tensions boiling over. "People in Punjab are worried because both the countries have taken a tough stand," Avtar Singh Junior, a politician in the northwestern Indian province which borders Pakistan, told Anadolu.

He said India and Canada should resolve the issue amicably. "I think it escalated because he [Trudeau] went public with the allegations. He should have raised the issue at diplomatic levels within India, behind the door," he said. "Everyone is hopeful that things will surely improve."

Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh-centric political party in India, said he met Indian Home Minister Amit Shah and appealed to him to take necessary steps to ensure a quick resolution of the dispute with Canada.

"Punjabis are in a state of panic due to deteriorating relations, and I made a similar appeal to the Canadian government," said Badal, a member of Indian parliament.

He said he is receiving hundreds of distress calls from Punjabis and students "who are apprehensive about their safe and smooth return to their homeland as well as the future in Canada." Canada has 1.4 million people of Indian origin, and India sends a high number of international students to Canada every year.

Separately, Badal told reporters in New Delhi that amid the diplomatic row, "Sikhs are being associated with terrorism, a wrong impression is being created, and this needs to stop."

Nirmal Singh, a political science expert in Indian Punjab, told Anadolu that both countries need each other and are mature democracies.

"Yes, people are worried in Punjab because a large number of people are connected to Canada," he said. "Everyone is hoping that relations will improve soon."

He added: "I am sure there will be an agreement between the two countries on whatever the issues there are. In diplomacy, solutions are always there on the table."