VANCOUVER, CANADA: Record-breaking over 15,000 Canadian Sikhs cast their votes in the Khalistan Referendum within the initial two hours at Canada\u2019s largest Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, the same place where Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) Canada leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was assassinated on June 18 this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was resurrected on Sunday morning as defying British Columbia\u2019s freezing temperate, over 15,000 Canadian Sikhs voted in the first two hours as queues stretching to two kilometres waited to vote in Khalistan Referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canadian Prime Minister has accused the Indian government and its diplomats stationed in Canada of carrying out the killing of Nijjar who was leading the Khalistan Referendum campaign from the same Gurdwara where voting is taking place today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US-based Sikhs For Justice is holding a second round of voting in British Columbia for its unofficial referendum to create an independent Sikh state in India. The second stage of the vote is taking place at the Surrey, B.C., gurdwara which has become the centre of attention after Nijjar\u2019s murder. The voting will continue till 5PM, open to all Sikhs age 18 and over who have not yet voted on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the SFJ General Counsel and spokesman, said organizers are expecting \u201cthousands\u201d of voters after the first vote in September drew such large crowds that a second day of voting was deemed necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pannun says Canada\u2019s allegations about India\u2019s links to Nijjar\u2019s killing have significantly bolstered vocal support for the movement for Khalistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe community has really taken it to a point where they have formed the belief that if they do not come out in large numbers, these killings will continue,\u201d Pannun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous voting on Sept. 10 came soon after Nijjar\u2019s killing but at that time Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had not publicly said there were \u201ccredible allegations\u201d of a potential link between the Indian government and Nijjar\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside and inside the Gurdwara, large banners hung carrying pictures of \u201cEnemies of Canada\u201d with their names, Indian PM Narendra Modi, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Sanjay Verma, India\u2019s High Commissioner to Canada.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VANCOUVER, CANADA: Record-breaking over 15,000 Canadian Sikhs cast their votes in the Khalistan Referendum within the initial two hours at Canada\u2019s largest Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, the same place where Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) Canada leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was assassinated on June 18 this year. Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was resurrected on Sunday […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,84,396,342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-india","category-latest","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}