Some Sikhs fear Modi government is threatening them in the US, Canada

Reuters spoke to 19 Sikh community leaders, including three elected US officials, who said that they or their organizations have been targeted with threats and harassment in the United States and Canada over the last year – even as law enforcement agencies pursue criminal investigations into the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada and the foiled assassination attempt of another separatist leader in the US.

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They described harassment online, surveillance, doxxing and “swatting,” or filing a false police report to trigger a law enforcement response. Seven Sikh activists said the FBI or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have warned them their lives could be in danger, without specifying the source of the threat.

Last year, Dr. Jasmeet Bains in California said four men who appeared to be of Indian origin came to her office. It was shortly after California adopted her resolution declaring the 1984 killing of thousands of Sikhs in India a genocide. “One of the people stood up and said, ‘I will do whatever it takes to go after you, Dr. Bains. And this is an open challenge to you’ and started getting aggressive in my face.”

In the Canadian province of British Columbia, Sikh activist Moninder Singh said he received a warning from police that “there was an imminent threat of assassination against [his] life”.

Last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his administration had credible evidence that the Indian government was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader there, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In Canada, four Indian nationals are facing charges of murder and conspiracy for the fatal shooting Nijjar in British Columbia.

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In the US, Indian national Nikhil Gupta has pleaded not guilty to trying to arrange the murder of a separatist leader at the behest of an Indian intelligence official. He is awaiting trial.

India has denied involvement in both cases. However, in Nijjar’s case, India’s High Commissioner to Canada called him a “designated terrorist.” Both men supported a fringe demand to break away from India and create an independent state called Khalistan.