"The night before the political activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered, in the spring of 2023, he made an urgent call from his home in Vancouver to a friend in New York. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and fellow-activist, picked up around midnight. Nijjar had phoned to deliver a warning: there was "chattering going on" among acquaintances of his who frequented night clubs in downtown Vancouver."
"The next day, June 18th, Nijjar made his way to the outskirts of Vancouver to visit the gurdwara where he worshipped. A plumber by trade, he'd been the temple's president for four years, and had spent much of that time advocating for the creation of a homeland for Sikhs, called Khalistan, in an area of northern India that includes the state of Punjab. The separatist movement, which has inspired generations of activists, has long infuriated the country's leadership."
"When Nijjar left the temple that evening, he was in a good mood. It was Father's Day, and his son Balraj had given him a pair of jeans. They'd planned a special meal: pizza and seviyan, a sweet pudding that was Nijjar's favorite dessert. From the parking lot, Nijjar called his family. "Get dinner ready," he said. "I'm coming home.""
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a Vancouver-based activist and gurdwara president who advocated for a Sikh homeland called Khalistan. The night before his June 18, 2023 killing he warned a fellow activist in New York about men seeking him and asking about weapons. On Father's Day an assailant drove a white sedan to block his truck, two hooded men fired approximately fifty rounds through the driver's-side door, and Nijjar died instantly. A prior attempted murder in New York and Nijjar's assassination indicate a transnational campaign of targeted violence that has imperiled diplomatic relations between India and Western countries.
Read at The New Yorker
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