What to know about the Sikh movement at the center of the tensions between India and Canada

A poster advertising a tribute for the former Gurdwara President Jathedar Hardeep Singh Nijjar is displayed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on September 19, 2023. (
Short Url
Updated 20 September 2023
Follow

What to know about the Sikh movement at the center of the tensions between India and Canada

  • India’s Sikh independence movement in 1970s and 1980s was suppressed by government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed
  • In 1984, Indian forces stormed Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there, killing around 400 people

NEW DELHI: Tensions between Canada and India have reached new heights with dueling diplomatic expulsions and an allegation of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil. 

The row centers around the Sikh independence, or Khalistan, movement. India has repeatedly accused Canada of supporting the movement, which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora. 

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Parliament described what he called credible allegations that India was connected to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. The Indian government denied any hand in Nijjar’s killing while also saying Canada was trying to shift the focus from Khalistan activists there. 

Here are some details about the issue: 

WHAT IS THE KHALISTAN MOVEMENT? 

India’s Sikh independence movement eventually became a bloody armed insurgency that shook India in the 1970s and 1980s. It was centered in northern Punjab state, where Sikhs are the majority, though they make up about 1.7 percent of India’s population. 

The insurgency lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by an Indian government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders. 

Hundreds of Sikh youths were also killed during police operations, many in detention or during staged gunfights, according to rights groups. 

In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, in Amritsar to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there. The operation killed around 400 people, according to official figures, but Sikh groups say thousands were killed. 

The dead included Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, whom the Indian government accused of leading the armed insurgency. 

On Oct. 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the raid on the temple, was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, who were Sikh. 

Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots, in which Hindu mobs went from house to house across northern India, particularly New Delhi, pulling Sikhs from their homes, hacking many to death and burning others alive. 

IS THE MOVEMENT STILL ACTIVE? 

There is no active insurgency in Punjab today, but the Khalistan movement still has some supporters in the state, as well as in the sizable Sikh diaspora beyond India. The Indian government has warned repeatedly over the years that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also intensified the pursuit of Sikh separatists and arrested dozens of leaders from various outfits that are linked to the movement. 

When farmers camped out on the edges of New Delhi to protest controversial agriculture laws in 2020, Modi’s government initially tried to discredit Sikh participants by calling them “Khalistanis.” Under pressure, Modi government later withdrew the laws. 

Earlier this year, Indian police arrested a separatist leader who had revived calls for Khalistan and stirred fears of violence in Punjab. Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old preacher, had captured national attention through his fiery speeches. He said he drew inspiration from Bhindranwale. 

HOW STRONG IS THE MOVEMENT OUTSIDE INDIA? 

India has been asking countries like Canada, Australia and the UK to take legal action against Sikh activists, and Modi has personally raised the issue with the nations’ prime ministers. India has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2 percent of the country’s population. 

Earlier this year, Sikh protesters pulled down the Indian flag at the country’s high commission in London and smashed the building’s window in a show of anger against the move to arrest Amritpal Singh. Protesters also smashed windows at the Indian consulate In San Francisco and skirmished with embassy workers. 

India’s foreign ministry denounced the incidents and summoned the UK’s deputy high commissioner in New Delhi to protest what it called the breach of security at the embassy in London. 

The Indian government also accused Khalistan supporters in Canada of vandalizing Hindu temples with “anti-India” graffiti and of attacking the offices of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa during a protest in March. 

Last year, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a Sikh militant leader and head of the Khalistan Commando Force, was shot dead in Pakistan. 


Polish right-wing presidential candidate visits Trump

Updated 12 sec ago
Follow

Polish right-wing presidential candidate visits Trump

Nawrocki has the backing of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice
“An immensely important meeting... with US President D. Trump at the White House,” Nawrocki said

WARSAW: Poland’s nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki said on Friday he had an “important” visit with US President Donald Trump at the White House, drawing accusations of election interference from some governing politicians.
Nawrocki has the backing of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) and outgoing President Andrzej Duda and is polling second two weeks ahead of the May 18 ballot.
The frontrunner, pro-European Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO).
“An immensely important meeting... with US President D. Trump at the White House and joint talks on the strategic alliance as well as future cooperation,” Nawrocki wrote on his Facebook page.
He added a campaign hashtag and photos of the two men posing at the White House during the Thursday visit.
The White House also posted the photos to X and said: “President Donald J. Trump welcomes Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki to the Oval Office.”
Nawrocki separately told TV Republika that “President Trump said, ‘You will win’... I understood that as him wishing me success in the upcoming elections.”
Some lawmakers from the governing coalition took to X on Friday to criticize the meeting.
MP Roman Giertych accused Trump of being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “friend” and of “brazenly interfering in the elections in Poland.”
Fellow lawmaker Tomasz Trela wrote: “Mr Nawrocki, Trump will not be choosing our president for us, just like he didn’t choose Canada’s prime minister.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals won Canada’s election on Monday after a campaign defined by threats from Trump.
Nawrocki, a 42-year-old historian, has been campaigning on the slogan of “Poland first, Poles first.”
While Nawrocki does not question Poland’s support for neighboring Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, he has denounced the generous benefits accorded to Ukrainians refugees.
He also wants Poland to boost its troop numbers and has called for controls on the border with Germany to keep out migrants.

Arab News coverage moves Pakistani governor to fund treatment of teen separated from Indian mother

Updated 10 min 37 sec ago
Follow

Arab News coverage moves Pakistani governor to fund treatment of teen separated from Indian mother

  • Pakistani teen Ayan, 17, was receiving spinal treatment in New Delhi but was separated from his Indian mother after his family was forced to leave India following the April 22 attack in Kashmir
  • The Sindh governor praised Arab News for highlighting Ayan’s case and pledged support for his treatment

KARACHI: The governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, Kamran Tessori, has pledged to cover the medical expenses of a paralyzed Pakistani teenager who was separated from his Indian mother amid escalating tensions between the two countries, his office said on Thursday, following Arab News’ coverage of the boy’s story.

Seventeen-year-old Muhammad Ayan was being treated at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital after a spinal injury he sustained during a 2023 gunfight between police and criminals in Karachi. He and his family were forced to leave India after the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. India accused Pakistan of backing the assault. Islamabad has strongly denied the allegation.

In the wake of the attack, both countries ordered each other’s nationals to leave, exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, and imposed diplomatic restrictions, leaving many families stranded or divided. Among them was Ayan’s family. His Indian mother, Nabeela, was unable to leave with them. The family returned to Karachi while she remained in New Delhi.

“Arab News is doing a good job. You should highlight the problems of the people and keep pointing toward the solution — which you people keep doing — then the problems move toward a solution. Ayan’s case is an example of this. You pointed it out, and we are trying now,” Tessori told Arab News on Friday.

“If Ayan’s treatment is not possible in Pakistan, then we are also contacting different countries to see where this treatment is possible. God willing, we will get it done wherever it is possible.”

The Pakistani official urged India to put an end to its “war mania,” pointing to several other cases such as Ayan’s. There has been no immediate comment from the Indian side on Ayan’s case.

Arab News published a report earlier this week highlighting Ayan’s separation from his mother and the abrupt end to his treatment in India, which prompted Tessori to take action.

“She was separated from us while crying, and we also came here with great difficulty, crying,” Ayan told Arab News, choking back tears.

Ayan’s father, Muhammad Imran, married Nabeela — his maternal cousin and a New Delhi resident — 18 years ago. She had been living in Pakistan on a visa that was periodically renewed, without ever obtaining Pakistani nationality. After the attack, the suspension of visa services invalidated the family’s 45-day Indian medical visa, and Nabeela was left behind.

Imran said that he had spent every last rupee in hopes that his son would walk again. But rising bilateral tensions made the family fearful while in India.

“I told them, ‘I’m married (to her),’ I pleaded, cried, and showed a lot of humility,” he said of his conversations with Indian authorities. “But they said, ‘No, write an exit and leave.’”

For Ayan, the trauma of paralysis was compounded by the emotional shock of being separated from his mother.

“I went for treatment with hope, but that hope shattered because of the accident and the fact that my mother couldn’t come with us,” he said. “I was completely separated from a mother’s love. We were far apart; it made me cry.”

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. The region is divided between the two countries, though both claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.

Since 1989, several Kashmiri groups have carried out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of supporting these groups — a charge Islamabad denies, insisting it offers only diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris.

Ayan’s father thanked Arab News for highlighting his family’s plight.

“They conveyed our words to higher officials, because of which Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice,” he said on Friday.

“I am also very thankful to him, who promised to have my son treated anywhere in the world.”


Vatican chimney installed ahead of papal conclave

Updated 02 May 2025
Follow

Vatican chimney installed ahead of papal conclave

Held behind locked doors, the conclave will signal to the world the outcome by burning ballots in a special stove
Cardinals from around the world have been called back to Rome following the death on April 21 of Francis

VATICAN CITY: Firefighters installed the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel on Friday which will emit white smoke to signal the election of a new pope as preparations proceed just five days before cardinals gather for the conclave.
Some 133 Catholic cardinals will gather below Michelangelo’s famed frescoes in the 15th-century chapel, situated inside the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
Held behind locked doors, the conclave will signal to the world the outcome by burning ballots in a special stove, with the chimney emitting black smoke if no one has been elected, or white smoke if there is a new pope.
Cardinals from around the world have been called back to Rome following the death on April 21 of Francis, an energetic reformer from Argentina who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.
All but four of the cardinal electors — those aged under 80 — who can vote in the conclave are already in Rome, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Ahead of the election, cardinals of all ages have been meeting daily at the Vatican to discuss the challenges facing the next head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Friday’s meeting emphasized spreading the Catholic faith, the need for unity and the risk of “counter-witness” — problems such as sexual abuse and financial scandals — among other issues, Bruni told reporters.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Italy’s Pietro Parolin — who served as secretary of state under Francis — and Ghana’s Peter Turkson are among the favorites to be the next pope.
But there is an old Roman saying that he who enters the conclave a pope, leaves a cardinal — a warning that the favorite rarely emerges as the winner.
“I think the Church is in prayer mode, but it must also put itself in surprise mode,” Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, 82, told reporters as he headed into Friday morning’s meeting.
“Remember what happened with Pope Francis — what a surprise!“
Among the crowds of tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Friday, the installation of the chimney on the Sistine Chapel — a thin metal tube with a capped top — went largely unnoticed.
But many were aware that history was in the making.
“It definitely is a historic moment and it definitely feels special to be in Rome,” said Glenn Atherton, a Briton visiting from London.
“It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he told AFP.
There are 135 cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave, but two have withdrawn for health reasons.
These were Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Archbishop emeritus of Valencia in Spain, and Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop emeritus of Nairobi in Kenya, the Vatican confirmed.
The conclave is due to begin at 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on Wednesday, where the cardinals will take an oath to maintain the secrecy of the election, on pain of excommunication.
That first day they will hold one ballot, with the winner — technically any baptised male, but in reality always one of their own — needing a two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, to win.
During the following days they will hold two votes in the morning and two in the afternoon.
If a winner is elected, the ballots will be burned in the special stove with the addition of chemicals to emit a white smoke to alert the waiting world to the decision.
If no candidate has enough votes during the first morning vote, the cardinals will proceed to a second vote, and only after that point will the ballots be burned.
The afternoon session follows the same procedure — if a pope is elected, there will be white smoke, but if not, the cardinals will proceed to a second vote and only after that will the ballots be burned.
If no pope is elected, the smoke emitted by the chimney is black.
The ancient signalling system — which still remains the only way the public learns whether a pope has been elected — used to involve mixing wet straw with the ballots to produce white smoke, and tarry pitch to create black smoke.
But after several episodes in which greyish smoke caused confusion, the Vatican introduced a new system in 2005.
At the last conclave, in 2013, the Vatican said it used a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulfur to produce black smoke, and potassium chlorate, lactose and rosin for white.
Two stoves stand in a corner of the chapel, one for burning the ballots and the other for the chemicals, with the smoke from both stoves going up a common flue, it said then.
Details for the procedure of next week’s conclave have not yet been confirmed.

Understanding Nigeria’s new wave of militant attacks

Updated 02 May 2025
Follow

Understanding Nigeria’s new wave of militant attacks

  • The Lake Chad basin serves as a crucial strategic corridor for militant groups, said Adamu
  • “Governance has been abandoned in so many of these places,” said Confidence McHarry, from consulting firm SBM Intelligence in Lagos

LAGOS: Nigeria’s northeast is facing a brutal resurgence of militant attacks, which have killed at least 100 people in April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 and displaced some two million people in Africa’s most populous country.
The Lake Chad basin serves as a crucial strategic corridor for militant groups, said Kabir Adamu, director of the Nigerian consulting firm Beacon Consulting, in terms of logistics, recruitment and cross-border attacks involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Boko Haram, also known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS):
The movement was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, Borno state, by radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who attributed Nigeria’s woes to the Western values left by former British colonial powers.
It launched an insurgency in 2009 and took control of significant areas in the northeast.
Through counteroffensives, the Nigerian army took back some of the lost territories but Boko Haram remains operational in some regions.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated group relies heavily on fear-based tactics, targeting civilians, looting villages and conducting kidnappings.

The Daesh West Africa Province (Daesh-WAP):
This group emerged in 2016 from a split within Boko Haram, with Daesh-WAP opposing the killing of Muslims. It is proving to be more organized and more ideological, focusing its attacks on military targets and infrastructure.
Other groups are operating in the northwest of the country, near the border with Niger, such as Ansaru, a dissident movement linked to Al-Qaeda, or Lakurawa.
It is also worth noting the emergence of other groups, particularly in the northwest and central regions of the country, “which may not be strictly militant but utilize similar methods, blurring the lines between criminal and terrorist activities,” said Adamu.

The ongoing resurgence of attacks is linked to several factors, experts said.
“There were direct calls made by the Daesh between January and March 2025, urging its affiliates worldwide to intensify their operations,” Adamu said.
Idriss Mounir Lallali, director of the Algeria-based African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), has seen a “strategic recalibration” by Boko Haram and Daesh-WAP, as the two groups seem to have overcome a period of mutual conflicts.
The militants have adapted their combat tactics, through the use of drones, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ambushes and coordinated raids, allowing them to intensify operations in rural and semi-urban areas.
Regional efforts in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and west Africa are facing structural weaknesses.
“Governance has been abandoned in so many of these places,” said Confidence McHarry, from consulting firm SBM Intelligence in Lagos.
Niger in March withdrew from a task force it had created along with Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad to combat militants around Lake Chad, disrupting cross-border patrols and intelligence sharing.
Chad has also threatened to withdraw from the task force.
“Without a reinvigorated multinational approach, these gaps risk becoming safe havens for militant expansion,” Lallali said.
While Nigerian forces have achieved territorial gains and succeeded in neutralising key militant commanders, Daesh-WAP and Boko Haram have both demonstrated significant resilience.
Many of their fighters have retreated into ungoverned areas.
“Security forces, while concentrated in key garrisons, have left many border and rural areas exposed,” Lallali said.
Insurgents take advantage of these vulnerabilities to restore supply routes and rebuild their influence among local populations.
At the end of April, Nigeria appointed a new leader for anti- militant operations in the northeast, General Abdulsalam Abubakar.


South African mother found guilty of selling young daughter

Updated 02 May 2025
Follow

South African mother found guilty of selling young daughter

  • The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return
  • The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin

SALDANHA: A South African court found a woman guilty Friday of trafficking her six-year-old daughter who has been missing for more than a year, in a case that has outraged the nation.
The two-month trial heard statements from various witnesses that Racquel “Kelly” Smith had revealed to them that she had sold her daughter Joshlin in February 2024, including claims she was paid 20,000 rand ($1,085).
Judge Nathan Erasmus said the evidence of 35 state witnesses led him to find that Smith, 35, and her two co-accused — a boyfriend and a mutual friend — were guilty on the charges of human trafficking and kidnapping.
“I have already found that on the evidence before me, Joshlin was exchanged,” he said.
“The evidence is from all scores there were payments, or at least the promise of payments,” he said, accusing Smith of regarding her daughter, who was aged six when she disappeared, as a “commodity.”
The trial was held in a community hall in the small fishing town of Saldanha Bay, about 135 kilometers (80 miles) north of Cape Town, where the case sparked outrage.
Crowds had gathered outside the hearings, chanting: “We want Joshlin back” and Friday’s verdict was met with a burst of applause.
Many locals had joined the police in days of searches for the girl around their impoverished area.
“You are guilty of... trafficking in persons in relation to Joshlin Smith. On count two, you are also convicted of kidnapping,” Erasmus told the three accused, none of whom took the stand.
He adjourned the court for sentencing, which may run up to life sentences.
Smith initially drew sympathy after her daughter was reported missing. Photographs showing Joshlin’s striking green eyes, broad smile and brown pigtails flooded the media.
The case drew national attention, including from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who offered a one-million-rand ($54,000) reward for her safe return.
But it took a turn when prosecutors alleged that Smith sold her daughter to a traditional healer, who was interested in her eyes and fair complexion.
The court heard that Smith, who has two other children, appeared unusually calm and unconcerned during the intense search for Joshlin.
Explosive details that played out in court included statements from the girl’s teacher and a pastor, who said the mother had told him of the planned sale of her child in 2023.