Canadian police officer Harinder Sohi has been suspended pending an investigation into his presence at a Khalistani attack on a Hindu temple in Brampton, Greater Toronto. Sohi is a sergeant in the Peel Regional Police.
An email from the Peel Police to CBS said the force “is aware of a post on social media which shows an off-duty Peel police officer involved in a demonstration. The officer has since been suspended in accordance with the Community Safety & Policing Act.”
Sohi was seen on videos in civilian clothes carrying a yellow Khalistani flag, amid a crowd of people shouting pro-Khalistan slogans. The crowd descended on the Hindu Sabha Mandir with videos showing clashes between two groups, one bearing Khalistan flags and the other with the Indian tricolour.
The clash took place during the visit by Indian consular officials to the temple. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, now on a visit to Australia, took serious note of the developments.
“What happened yesterday at the Hindu temple in Canada is deeply concerning. You would have seen the statement first by our official spokesperson and also the expression of concern by our prime minister, that should convey to you how deeply we feel about it,” he said.
Relations between Delhi and Ottawa have touched a low following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s charge of Indian involvement in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June last year.
Indian origin Canadian politician Ujjal Dosanjh believes Khalistanis are trying to drive a wedge between Hindus and Sikhs in Canada, hoping this will create similar schisms in India.
“Their effort is to sow some division and carry that divsion into India,” he was quoted in the media as saying, “That’s their hope because they want to dismember the country.”
He traced the rise in Khalistani violence to the arrival of Justin Trudeau as prime minister.
“He knows what is happening, Khalistanis were in his cabiinet. I think he is doing it because ‘why make enemies’, even if you have thousand votes… Khalistanis why make them angry.”
The Canadian political class was in slumber about these issues. “They have not condemned Khalistani violence, not named it, not called it out … it seems these guys came from somewhere up in the sky.”
He noted the call by US-based Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun calling for the expulsion of Hindus from Canada.
“Do you believe if someone called for the expulsion of Jews, he wouldn’t be prosecuted and investigated.”
Clearly, there is double standards at work here but with the political class “slumbering”, there is seemingly nobody in the Canadian ruling establishment with an eye on the ball.
