Vancouver police confirmed to Global News Tuesday that it has increased its presence around the Indian Consulate on Howe Street in the downtown area.
The City of Vancouver also said staff installed a no parking and no stopping zone sign near the consulate.
These decisions were made following discussions with other policing agencies, Vancouver police confirmed.
On Monday, the human rights advocacy group Sikhs For Justice said peaceful protests will “shut down” Indian consulate offices in Canada next week, with new intelligence appearing to link the Indian state to a high-profile murder in British Columbia.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, was gunned down in the Surrey temple’s parking lot after evening prayers on June 18. Nijjar, 45, was a prominent community leader and supporter of Sikh separatism.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed that national security authorities had obtained “credible” intelligence “agents of the government of India” were behind the grisly killing — something the World Sikh Organization of Canada and others had suggested shortly after Nijjar’s death.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has vehemently denied the claims, calling them “absurd and motivated” in a statement early on Tuesday.
Protests, however, are slated to take place outside Indian consulates in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver next Monday, according to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal counsel for Sikhs for Justice.
— with files from Elizabeth McSheffrey