US-based Khalistani outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has threatened to “siege” the Indian Consulate in Vancouver on September 18, days after India and Canada restored diplomatic ties. The group has urged Indians and Indo-Canadians to avoid the premises.
SFJ also released a poster featuring newly appointed Indian High Commissioner Dinish Patnaik, with a target superimposed on his face. In its statement, the outfit invoked former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s 2023 claim in Parliament that Indian agents were allegedly linked to the killing of NIA-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Surrey gurdwara on June 18, 2023.
The separatist group alleged that Indian consulates still run “spy networks” against Khalistan Referendum supporters. It further claimed that the threat level was such that the RCMP placed Inderjeet Singh Gosal, who succeeded Nijjar in the referendum campaign, under witness protection.
Calling the proposed siege a demand for “accountability” over “espionage and intimidation on Canadian soil,” SFJ sought to escalate its campaign as Canada itself recently admitted in a government report that Khalistani terror groups remain active in the country.
India–Canada relations had nosedived in 2023 after Trudeau spoke of “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing. New Delhi dismissed the charge as “absurd” and accused Ottawa of allowing anti-India extremism to thrive. The two sides only recently exchanged new high commissioners following an understanding between PMs Narendra Modi and Mark Carney during the G7 summit in June.
