The RCMP have charged two teens, alleging they fired gunshots at the Surrey, B.C., home of a Sikh activist, but investigators have found no links to foreign interference.
Sikhs for Justice, a group advocating for Sikh independence, has said the apparent target of the Feb. 1 shooting, Simrinjeet Singh, was a member of their movement, and that they believe the Indian government was involved in the attack.
The RCMP said in a statement Tuesday that investigators “have not established any links to foreign interference” in the case. The force has said nobody was injured in the shooting, though Mr. Singh’s home was damaged.
The statement said two 16-year-old youths were arrested on Feb. 12 and are being held in custody as they await their next court appearance. The force added that the BC Prosecution Service has approved charges of discharging a firearm into a place and possessing a loaded prohibited firearm. Officers executed a search warrant in Surrey on Feb. 6, and seized three firearms and multiple electronic devices.
Mr. Singh was a friend of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a well-known Sikh independence activist who was killed outside a Surrey temple last summer. In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that agents of the Indian government had been behind Mr. Nijjar’s slaying – an allegation India has denied. The incident has stoked suspicion among Sikh groups.
Like Mr. Nijjar, Mr. Singh has advocated for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland that activists call Khalistan, a breakaway state that would exist in what is now India’s northern Punjab region, home to more than 27 million Sikhs. A worldwide non-binding referendum on Khalistan has created friction between Indian diaspora communities in North America.
The Khalistan campaign is strongly opposed by some Hindu groups, who accuse those behind it of using violence and terror to tear their country apart. Sikh activists, meanwhile, say Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inflaming anti-Sikh sentiment to shore up support from his Hindu nationalist political base.
Mr. Singh helped organize a pro-Khalistan demonstration at the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Jan. 26. He is also a director of B.C.-based non-profit North American Sikhs Aid, which has links to the Khalistan movement. The group’s federal certificate of incorporation pledges to give all its assets to Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Mr. Nijjar’s place of worship, if the non-profit is dissolved.
Last week, Peel Regional Police said they were investigating whether growing tensions between opponents and supporters of an independent Sikh state in India were behind a shooting at a house in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, another city with a large and politically active Sikh community.
Shots were fired overnight on Feb. 12 through a window of a home owned by Inderjeet Singh Gosal, an organizer of a rally in support of Khalistan. The house, which is under construction, was unoccupied at the time.
Mr. Gosal is a close associate of New York-based lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel and spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice. In November, U.S. authorities foiled an assassination plot targeting Mr. Pannun and unsealed an indictment that alleged an Indian government official had paid underworld hitmen to carry out the killings of multiple prominent Sikhs in North America.
Editor’s note: (Feb. 21, 2024): This article has been updated to clarify that the teens charged are alleged to have fired gunshots at the Surrey, B.C., home of a Sikh activist.
Nancy Macdonald