Bloomberg: Arrests in Canada may point to another Indian assassination plot
Bloomberg has reported that a number of arrests in Canada “may point to a previously unknown plot” by the far-right Indian government “to kill a Sikh activist on North American soil.”
The media outlet reported that five men were arrested on firearms charges in November 2023 in Ontario, “a day before the son of a prominent member of the Sikh independence movement was to be married in the Toronto-area city.” The event was set to be attended by several other prominent Sikh activists, including Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who was himself the target of a foiled assassination attempt in New York. One of the arrested men was later charged in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was reportedly assassinated by the Indian government due to his advocacy for a separate Sikh state.
In 2023, shortly after both plots were uncovered, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concerns over the Indian government’s increasing transnational repression, saying that both incidents “represent a severe escalation of India’s efforts to silence religious minorities and human rights defenders both within its country and abroad.”
Hindu speaker declares that if Muslims “kill one of us, we should kill two of theirs”
A Hindu supremacist speaker encouraged Hindus to kill Muslims in revenge for perceived communal crimes, saying, “If they kill one of us, we should kill two of theirs.”
The speaker was affiliated with the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, a supremacist group that attempted to spin the murder of a Hindu man, Yashashree Shinde – who was reportedly killed over a one-sided love affair – into an incident pitting Hindus against Muslims.
BJP leaders give anti-Muslim hate speeches, encourage violence
Leaders of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave anti-Muslim hate speeches in different states across India. In Maharashtra, BJP leader and vocal Hindu supremacist Nitesh Rane similarly attempted to communalize the murder of Yashashree Shinde, claiming it was the result of “love jihad” and urged Hindus to retaliate with anti-Muslim violence.
In a village in Rajasthan, BJP lawmaker Balmukund Acharya addressed a group of Hindu supremacists, promoting fear and hatred of Muslims.
Other Hindu supremacists have also continued to spread anti-Muslim hate. A video has surfaced from Jalgaon, Maharashtra, showing Hindu supremacist pseudo-intellectual Pushpendra Kulshrestha giving a speech glorifying the violent mob demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindu militants in 1992.
