FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2024 – Hindus for Human Rights calls on the Canadian and United States governments to pursue all legal options to hold accountable Indian officials who allegedly have been involved in the murders and attempted murders of Canadian and American citizens, including the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. According to the Washington Post, Canadian officials alleged that these Indian officials include Home Minister Amit Shah. If true, both Canadian and American officials must investigate whether available mechanisms, including Global Magnitsky sanctions and additional visa bans, are applicable to Shah.
On October 14, 2024, Canada and India expelled six diplomats from each others’ countries after the Canadian government announced India’s High Commissioner to Canada was a person of interest in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s ongoing investigation into the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The Canadian government alleged that Nijjar was one of multiple individuals who may have been killed by the Indian government. The same day, the United States Department of State announced that a special investigative team from India would be visiting Washington, DC to give updates on India’s investigation into the alleged attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as well as receive updates from the United States government on the Department of Justice’s open case regarding Pannun’s attempted murder. Later that day, the Indian government informed the Department of Justice that it had arrested an individual known as “CC-1” in indicting documents.
However, around the same time, the Washington Post reported that the Indian government developed a network of diplomats, intelligence officials, and members of a criminal syndicate led by Lawrence Bishnoi to target and attack alleged Sikh separatists. According to the Washington post, Indian diplomats referred to a “senior official in India,” which the Canadian officials have allegedly identified as India’s Home Minister Amit Shah. If true, this would be a stunning overreach by India’s second-most powerful official and implies that the Indian government, at the absolute highest levels, has coordinated an elaborate scheme of repression across the globe. These operations target, first and foremost, the Indian diaspora.
India’s relationships with Canada and the US rely on historic and strong people-to-people ties. These alleged murders and attempted murders directly harm the Indian diaspora, especially the Sikh diaspora. Indian Canadians and Indian Americans are just as deserving of their rights to free speech as their fellow countrymen, and when Indian officials try to harm these communities, they are intentionally trying to sever the people-to-people ties that undergird the relationships between India, Canada, and the United States.
These allegations are also part of a broader pattern of transnational repression by the Indian government. At a time when Indian civil society continues to face attacks, the Indian diaspora has become increasingly crucial to elevate human rights concerns in India. The Indian government is replicating its attempts to criminalize dissent in India to harass critics outside India into silence. In fact, Hindus for Human Rights has faced its own repression, including the banning of our Twitter account in India as well as antisemitic attacks against our Executive Director, Sunita Viswanath, by former Union Minister Smriti Irani.
As the Hindu diaspora’s only explicitly Hindu human rights organization, we are alarmed by the attacks on Indian Canadians and Indian Americans by the Indian government. We reiterate our demand that the Canadian and US governments pursue all legal mechanisms, including sanctions and visa bans, to hold Indian officials accountable for their attacks on our diaspora. Our communities deserve to exercise their guaranteed civil rights and enjoy the safety that is guaranteed to all Canadians and Americans.
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Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit nonpartisan organization founded in 2019. We advocate for pluralism and civil and human rights in South Asia and North America, rooted in the values of our Hindu faith: shanti (peace), nyaya (justice) and satya (truth). We work with a broad coalition of partners to educate elected officials and the public in the United States about civil and human rights issues in South Asia.
Please direct all media inquiries to: david@hindusforhumanrights.org, David Dasharath Kalal, Director of Communications for Hindus For Human Rights
