Police in Canada arrest Pannun aide in temple attack case

Canadian police have arrested an aide of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) general counsel Gurpatwant Pannun in connection with a violent attack on a Hindu temple in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on November 3.

In a release on Saturday, Peel Regional Police (PRP) said that 35-year-old Inderjeet Gosal, resident of Brampton, was arrested and charged on Friday with assault with a weapon. He was released on conditions and is to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton at a later date.

Gosal is considered Pannun’s lieutenant. He replaced Hardeep Singh Nijjar as the so-called Khalistan referendum’s main Canadian organiser after the latter was killed in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18 last year. Nijjar’s murder led to a fracture in the relationship between New Delhi and Ottawa after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons three months later that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing. India had described those allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”.

Gosal was also reportedly among the 13 Canadians who were the targets of violent criminal activity aimed at pro-Khalistan elements, according to Canadian police. Those allegations from Canada had led to India withdrawing six diplomats and officials from the country and expelling six in retaliation.

The attack on the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton on November 3 had shaken the Indo-Canadian community and was condemned by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trudeau and Canada’s opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, among several others.

SFJ had claimed that Gosal was targeted during a protest by pro-Khalistan elements against the temple that was hosting a consular camp while officials of the Indian consulate in Toronto were present on the premises.

Several arrests have been announced in that connection with some linked to a counter-protest at a gurdwara in Malton that night as well at a rally against the violence at the temple on November 4, which had been declared “unlawful” by PRP as weapons were observed.