Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen wanted by India for years, was shot dead in June outside the temple he led in Surrey, near Vancouver.

The crime was investigated during these 3 months and, this Monday (18), the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, said that intelligence agencies were studying the involvement of the Indian government in the murder of Sikh activist.

“Any involvement by a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil constitutes an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau told the Canadian Parliament.

India reacted and declared that Canada was “divert attention away from terrorists and extremists” who received shelter.

The pro-Khalistan movement, to which Nijjar was linked, reached its peak in India in the 1980s, with a localized insurgency in the state of Punjab, which had 18 million Sikhs, one of the ethnic groups living in India. (read more below).

This ethnic group was forcibly suppressed at the same time and now has little influence in India itself. During this period of oppression, many Sikhs left the country and settled mainly in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Canada is the country with the largest number of Sikhs outside of Punjab and has seen several pro-Khalistan protests and demonstrations.

Khalistan means “land of the pure” and is one of the demands of a group of people who are part of the Sikh ethnic movement. In their beliefs, they have the right to land space reserved for them and governed by them.

The location of this land would be exactly where the state of Punjab in northern India is located today.

Sikhs worship a different religion than Muslims, located in Pakistan and northern India, and Hindus, based in the rest of India.

This group of people of Sikh origin believes that having their own state would be the best way to reduce political and religious oppression.

In the Sikh religion, there is only one god without a defined form called Wahenguru.

India suspended visa services for Canadian citizens on Thursday (21).

The body responsible for processing Indian visas in Canada, Visa BLS, released a message from the Indian mission stating the “operational reasons” for the decision.

“Important notice from Indian Mission: Due to operational reasons, effective September 21, 2023, Indian visa services have been suspended until further notice.”

Until the last update of this report, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had not yet commented on the issue.