ONTARIO, Canada: Shots appear to have been fired at the Canadian home of a Sikh separatist activist, police said Monday, following recent accusations by Canada and the USA that Indian dissidents living abroad in both countries were being targeted.
Constable Tyler Bell-Morena said Peel Regional Police were alerted by construction crews to what appeared to be a “bullet hole in the window of Inderjit Singh Gosal’s Ontario home” and are investigating.
Gosal is also a close associate of prominent Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh American activist in New York who US authorities say was the target of a foiled assassination attempt in the United States last year.
No injuries were reported in the shooting as the Brampton, Ontario home is under construction and currently unoccupied.
“We understand who this person is and his affiliations, but it’s just too early for us to speculate that there’s any connection” to other violence and threats, Bell-Morena told media.
“We are obviously investigating it with all avenues in mind,” he said further.
Pannun, writing on social media, called the incident a “drive-by shooting.”
In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly linked New Delhi to the killing of another Sikh separatist in the country, Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
After Trudeau went public with his allegations, India denied the allegations and reacted furiously, briefly restricting visas for Canadians and forcing Ottawa to withdraw diplomats.
Canada has also suspended negotiations on a free trade agreement with India.
Washington was more reserved in its assessment of New Delhi’s potential involvement in the Pannun case, saying only that an Indian government official was allegedly involved in the planning.
Earlier this month, a group of people shot at the British Columbia home of an associate of Nijjar, Simranjeet Singh. Two Canadian teenagers have been arrested for a firearm, but police have not determined a motive, according to Canadian media.
Both cases center on radical Sikh separatists living abroad and pushing for an independent state called Khalistan in the northern Indian state of Punjab, where Delhi suppressed an insurgency three decades ago.
