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The Excessive Fee of India in Canada is seen in Ottawa on Oct. 14.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
India’s consulate in Toronto is suspending a few of its diplomatic visits to course of paperwork at locations like non secular temples after violence between Sikh and Hindu folks.
The violence began Sunday exterior the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton, Ont., the place police allege folks within the crowd had been carrying weapons and throwing objects.
The following day there have been tense protests exterior the temple, main to a different police intervention and calls to ban protests at Brampton non secular websites.
The clashes have concerned Hindu teams clashing with Sikh separatists, who’ve protested visits by Indian consular officers to course of paperwork for issues similar to pensions.
The violence has additional heightened tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats final month when the RCMP flagged them as individuals of curiosity in alleged crimes towards Canadians.
India’s Toronto consulate says it’s suspending a few of its introduced website visits, however didn’t specify which of them have been cancelled.
“In view of the security agencies conveying their inability to provide minimum security protection to the community-camp organizers, (the Toronto) consulate has decided to cancel some of the scheduled consular camps,” the consulate mentioned in a publish on X.
The consulate’s web site lists deliberate visits in locations like Brampton, Mississauga, Halifax, Windsor and London, Ont.
India’s excessive fee in Canada didn’t instantly reply when requested if its Ottawa mission or Vancouver consulate had additionally suspended consular visits. Officers in these missions have introduced what they name “consular camps” throughout the Prairies this weekend, in addition to in Montreal and components of British Columbia later this month.
Sikh separatists, who advocate for an impartial nation known as Khalistan to be carved out of India, have alleged Indian diplomats use their temple visits to recruit informants to focus on Khalistan supporters.
Whereas the Canadian authorities has refused to establish the diplomats it expelled, the federal authorities does preserve a database of diplomats who’re accredited to Canada. That database was up to date every week after the expulsions had been introduced on Oct. 14, and 6 names that had been beforehand on the listing had been eliminated.
That features Excessive Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and Toronto consul basic Siddhartha Nath. The web sites of every Indian mission now listing interim replacements for each positions.
The database additionally beforehand included Bikram Pal Singh Bhatty, a primary secretary on the Ottawa excessive fee, in addition to Toronto consular officer Dheeraj Pareek, Vancouver consular officer Rahul Negi and a Vancouver consular worker named Kanwaljit Singh.
World Affairs Canada wouldn’t affirm whether or not these had been the names of the six diplomats who had been expelled.
“We are not in a position to provide the names of the six Indian diplomats that are now considered persona non grata. We can confirm that they have left Canada,” wrote spokeswoman Clémence Grevey.
India’s overseas ministry listed the names and ranks of the six Canadian diplomats it additionally expelled; each international locations claimed that they had ordered expulsions first.
But the spokesman for India’s overseas ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, refused to establish the six diplomats Canada expelled, when requested at an Oct. 17 press convention.
“For various reasons, we don’t want to reveal their names to you,” he mentioned.
