CANADA SAYS INVESTIGATION INTO NIJJAR'S KILLING ‘ONGOING' AS CIVIL GROUPS, STUDENTS WORRY ABOUT RISING HATE CRIMES

A group of eminent Indian-Americans has condemned the “brazen hateful comments” and a “hostile environment against Hindus” in Canada

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The group has asked Ottawa not to “mix freedom of expression with freedom for terror” and endorse hate crimes by being silent on the issue. The demand by Indian-Americans came after an offensive video from a pro-Khalistan group threatening Hindus in Canada to leave the country went viral. “It is concerning to see Khalistani terrorists repeatedly threaten Hindu Canadians by desecrating and scarring Hindu sacred spaces on Canadian soil. Silence in the face of such brazen Hinduphobia—or worse, the justification that this is an acceptable form of political expression—is tantamount to the endorsement of hate crimes,” said Professor Indu Vishwanathan, co-founder and co-director of the Understanding Hinduphobia at the Hindu University of America.

“The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should not mix freedom of expression with freedom for terror. He should instead stop radicalisation, and drug gangs and diplomatically handle international situations,” Khanderao Kand, from the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), said in a media statement. The Khalistani video surfaced days after Trudeau’s allegations on 18 September of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, on Canadian soil on 18 June in British Columbia.