India's warning to nationals in Canada brings to sharp focus "Khalistan Referendum'

Toronto: Canada is trying hard to stomach India's warning last week to Indian nationals about "sharp increase in incidents of hate crimes, sectarian violence and anti-Indian activities in Canada".

Canada's leading daily Toronto Star responded to India's advisory, saying "The language employed by Indian diplomats was that which one might expect to be used more to describe Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan".

The advisory, according to The Indian Express, became talking point in media after The Globe and Mail reported it with the headline: "Indian students warned of hate crimes in Canada".

The warning to Indian nationals stands out as Canada ranks No. 12 on the 2022 Global Peace Index.

Many view that with this move India was paying back to Canada in the same coin for the President Justin Trudeau's support to the farmers' protests in India in 2020.

Many in Canada, however, reportedly believes that the advisory was issued following the controversial September 18 "Khalistan Referendum" in Brampton, held by a pro-Khalistan organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).

The organisers claimed that about 100,000 attended the programme which said was "exaggerated".

Mississauga-based lawyer and community leader Harminder Dhillon said that Ontario has a Sikh population of about 180,000. Out of that, 100,000 voting for Khalistan is a wild exaggeration, according to the report.

Dhillon added that none of the thousands of Sikhs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) voted in the referendum.

The SFJ, which is banned in India, called India's advisory to its nationals "a threat to the freedom of speech and expression of Sikhs in Canada who are supporting liberation of Punjab".

SFJ's general counsel Gurpawant Singh Pannun said in a statement that India's Ministry of External Affairs was creating an atmosphere of 'hate-mongering' after the Modi regime failed to stop the Khalistan referendum through diplomatic channels."

The SFJ earlier reportedly claimed responsibility for the Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack at Punjab Intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May this year, according to the report.

Harminder Dhillon, who started living in Canada some 37 years ago, said Canada is peaceful, diverse and welcoming country and added that incidents of violence are few and far between.

However, shocking the parents back home of children studying in Canada, Indian student Kartik Vasudev was gunned down in Toronto in April.

Another Indian student Satwinder Singh was shot dead on September 12 in a shooting rampage in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).