Canada’s Assassination Claim Further Divides Its Indian Diaspora

The stunning allegation that India was behind the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia has revived long-simmering tensions within Canada’s Indian diaspora, pitting staunch Hindu nationalists against supporters of the creation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Last October, in the city of Mississauga in Ontario, the police broke up a fight in which one man was slightly injured after a crowd, carrying Indian and Khalistan flags, became unruly during a Diwali celebration. In March, a Punjabi radio journalist covering a protest of an Indian high commissioner’s visit to Surrey, British Columbia, was attacked by demonstrators.

These episodes underscore the challenges that Canada — home to the world’s largest Sikh population outside India — faces following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim on Monday that India was responsible for fatally shooting the Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June outside a temple in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.

Mr. Trudeau’s allegations have set off a diplomatic skirmish, as the country seeks India’s cooperation with its investigation into Mr. Nijjar’s killing.

The long-running, tense and sometimes combative relationship between extremists on both sides threatens to spill over into new violence as their members are either empowered or enraged by Mr. Trudeau’s allegation.

While Canada has long said that anti-India protests by Sikhs, provided they are not violent, are constitutionally protected free speech, a senior federal government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the country recognizes that there is a need to find a way to rein in more extreme and inflammatory actions.