The activist who took over a referendum campaign for Khalistan independence from slain Sikh temple leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar said police have warned him his life is in danger.
Inderjeet Singh Gosal said the Ontario Provincial Police visited his Brampton, Ont., home after midnight on Friday to notify him he was the subject of a “duty to warn” notice.
Since he was not at home at the time, an officer later phoned to tell him he was at risk, and that he should be vigilant and report anything suspicious, Gosal told Global News on Tuesday.
“I was a little shocked,” he said.
The 35-year-old is the coordinator of a Canada-wide referendum on independence for India’s Sikh-majority Punjab state. He assumed the role after Nijjar was gunned down in Surrey, B.C., last year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has publicly linked the June 18, 2023, murder to agents of the government of India, which opposes the Khalistan separatist campaign and had branded Nijjar a terrorist.
Gosal said he believed the Indian government was behind the threat to his life, which he attributed to his role organizing voting events that ask whether Khalistan should gain independence from India.
“I am coordinating all the referendums in Canada, taking the role after Mr. Nijjar,” Gossal said. “I was thinking I was safe here, in a beautiful country like Canada, but clearly India is not letting up.”
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has been accused of engaging in transnational repression and assassination plots that aim to silence pro-Khalistan voices. Police believe Indian agents have been contracting the killings to organized crime.
The New York-based organizer of the referendum, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, of the group Sikhs For Justice, was similarly targeted in a foiled assassination plot allegedly orchestrated by an Indian official.
Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating an Aug. 11 incident in northern California in which five shots were fired at the vehicle of Satinder Pal Singh Raju, a U.S. Khalistan referendum organizer.
The OPP has not yet responded to a request for comment. The RCMP, which issues the “duty to warn” notices, said it did not publicly confirm them since doing so could cause additional risks.
“We acknowledge that an individual who has received a “duty to warn” may choose to make this information public, however, it does not alleviate the responsibility of the RCMP to maintain the privacy of the individual who has received such a warning,” the RCMP’s Ontario office said.
The RCMP has issued a handful of such warnings to pro-Khalistan activists over the past two years. They inform the subjects that their lives are in peril but do not provide any details.
A key organizer of the voting events in support of Khalistan, and a close aide to Pannun, Gosal was already concerned for his safety following a drive-by shooting at his home in February.
Gosal was also a close friend of Nijjar, whom he said was “like a brother to me.” Nijjar was shot dead outside Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, where he served as president.
In May, four suspects with alleged ties to Indian organized crime were arrested in Edmonton and Brampton for Nijjar’s killing. The RCMP is continuing to investigate the Indian government’s alleged involvement.
The latest incidents suggest India has not been deterred and feels emboldened by the lack of consequences for its actions, Pannun said in an interview.
He blamed the Modi government for the threat to Gosal, and called it a form of transnational repression and a challenge to Canadian sovereignty.
“The Trudeau government must hold India’s high commissioner accountable for setting up a spy network that monitors pro-Khalistan activists and orchestrated Nijjar’s assassination.”
Foreign meddling in Canada has become a key issue under the Trudeau government, which has launched a commission to examine attempts by hostile powers to manipulate the 2019 and 2021 federal votes.
Both the Foreign Interference Commission and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) have ranked India as the number two threat, behind only China.
The NSICOP report revealed that several parliamentarians may have helped overseas governments, and that so-called “proxy agents” are working on behalf of the foreign states.
“For its part, India has an active proxy who has proactively looked for ways to further India’s interests by monitoring and attempting to influence politicians,” the report said.
The report alleged a proxy for India had funded two unnamed federal political parties — and was “likely reimbursed” by the Indian government. The candidates were unaware they were targeted, it added.