Canadian police hunt for Sikh trouble-makers
April 22nd, 2010 - 1:36 pm ICT by IANSToronto, April 22 (IANS) Canadian police has launched a big hunt for people behind the recent violence at two Sikh temples in Brampton on the outskirts of Toronto that has outraged the Sikh community as well as common people here.
In the first incident, former Akal Takht jathedar Darshan Singh Ragi was targeted at the Sikh Lehar Centre gurdwara here. Though Ragi survived, one of his close associate who is a known lawyer was stabbed with kirpan. The attackers were opposed to inviting Ragi who has been excommunicated by the Sikh clergy in Amritsar for his views on the Dasam Granth which was supposedly written by the last Sikh guru Gobind Singh.
With that incident just behind them after the arrest of the guilty, the Canadian Sikh community was rocked by the Sunday brawl at another gurdwara - the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple - where axes, swords, hammers and machetes were used by two factions locked in a battle for control of the shrine.
Police, who arrested three people at the time of the brawl, issued arrest warrants for two more radicals - Amarjit Singh Mann, 58, and Surjit Singh Atwal, 54 - for their role in the violence.
The community has reacted with outrage to the two incidents, with calls for deportation of the guilty. Since the kirpan has been used in these incidents to inflict violence, there have also been calls for limiting the size of the kirpan that baptized Sikhs wear.
Canada is home to more than half a million Sikhs, with most of them concentrated in the Toronto suburbs of Mississauga and Brampton and the Vancouver suburbs of Surrey and Delta.
At the time of terrorism in Punjab, many top pro-Khalistani leaders, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, took shelter in Canada, turning it into a hotbed of militancy in North America. It was Parmar who plotted the Air India Kanishka bombing. Parmer, who later entered India via Pakistan, was killed in an encounter by police in Punjab.
Canada banned radical Sikh organizations, including the Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation, only recently, though their members continue to be active.
- Kirpans out as Canadian Sikh divsions deepen over scripture - Apr 12, 2010
- Sikhs fight pitched battle at Toronto gurdwara - Apr 20, 2010
- Akal Takht ex-jathedar sticks to stand on scripture - Apr 13, 2010
- Air India victims echo judge's remarks on Sikh radicals - May 12, 2011
- Canadian Sikhs angry as Quebec assembly bans kirpan - Feb 10, 2011
- Kirpan ban slammed by Canadian opposition, media - Jan 21, 2011
- Sikhs allowed to wear kirpan at Olympic venues - Oct 16, 2009
- Sikhs with kirpans denied entry to Quebec assembly - Jan 20, 2011
- Canada warns Sikh radicals against violence - Apr 27, 2010
- Canadian parliament condemns Sikh extremism - Apr 29, 2010
- Surrey Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Society 'denounces' shooting on its premise - Aug 29, 2010
- Defamation suit against Indian-origin Canadian MP - Nov 27, 2010
- Canadian parliament admits motion to call 1984 riots 'genocide' - Jun 12, 2010
- It's Punjabi versus Punjabi in Canadian polls - Apr 28, 2011
- Liberal Party leader says Sikhs have right to carry kirpan in Canada - Jan 21, 2011
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