Carnage in Manipur showcases the tragedy unfolding around India’s anti-Christian ‘conversion laws’.
Two Christian women from the Kuki tribe, allegedly raped by Hindu extremists, are an example of how reluctant Western and Indian authorities are to call it persecution.
Both women, one middle-aged and the other in her 20s, were marched naked down a street towards a field before authorities claim they were gang-raped by ‘dozens’ of men in early May.
In the state, where two women were gang raped, villagers are being beheaded and homes and churches torched
The video is almost impossible to watch. Two terrified Indian women stripped by a marauding mob of men with sticks, paraded and publicly groped before being dragged to a paddy field where they were allegedly gang raped.
“The entire country has been shamed,” declared Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, when it emerged ten days ago amid global outrage. “What happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven.”
Narendra Modi has pledged to protect the “daughters of Manipur” from ethnic violence after the gang rape of two Christian women by a Hindu mob.
A video shared widely online — despite a ban on the internet in Mainpur, the northeastern state which shares a border with Myanmar — shows the women being paraded naked and groped by a group of apparently Hindu men before being dragged into a field where they were allegedly raped.
Two Manipur ladies displayed naked in a disturbing viral video #ManipurViolence #Manipur #Meitei #shameful #मणिपुर #kuki #manipurwomen #rape #WomenSafety #Shame #civilunresthttps://t.co/PsqTMFY2jC pic.twitter.com/qYlKMSrt0H
— OSINTopedia (@OSINTopedia5) July 20, 2023
Signs posted on the gates of a Sikh temple in the shadow of Toronto’s Pearson Airport declared it a “referendum war zone.”
But inside the gurdwara’s perimeter on Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere was festive. Drums beat and children played as hundreds of people formed a long snaking line toward the temple doors.
They were waiting to cast ballots on a provocative question: Do you want the Indian state of Punjab to become an independent country called Khalistan?
On a mid-June summer evening in the busy parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in the city of Surrey, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in his truck by two masked gunmen.
A month later, the unsolved killing continues to reverberate, in Canada and across borders. Hundreds of Sikh separatists took to the streets in Toronto, along with a handful others in cities like London, Melbourne and San Francisco, just last weekend to protest the Indian government, which they believe is responsible for his death.
Rallies in support of the Khalistan Freedom movement are being planned for Saturday, July 8 at India’s consulates in Toronto and Vancouver in the wake of the killing of prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Mr. Nijjar was shot dead in the parking lot of the Surrey, B.C. gurdwara where he was president on June 18. Mr. Nijjar, whom India’s National Investigation Agency had accused of being a terrorist, advocated for Sikh independence and urged Sikhs around the world to vote in an international referendum for Punjab, a state in northern India, to secede.
On Tuesday, July 4, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mélanie Joly took cognizance of the Khalistanis threatening Indian diplomats in posters circulated in Canada and said that it is unacceptable. She said that the country takes its obligations under the Vienna Conventions regarding safety of diplomats very seriously.
Members of the Sikh community in Surrey believe that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the president of a local temple, was killed because of his political views.
On Sunday, after riddling a car with bullets in a parking lot, two masked, heavyset men made a run for it and jumped into a getaway vehicle near a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, the police said.
The victim, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was a prominent Sikh community leader and president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a temple where he was shot. He advocated the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation carved out of areas including the Indian state of Punjab.
Last week, a retired lieutenant general in India’s army bemoaned the volatile situation in his native Manipur, a violence-wracked state in the north-east of the country.
“The state is now ‘stateless’,” tweeted L Nishikanta Singh. “Life and property can be destroyed anytime by anyone just like in Libya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Syria etc.”
Nearly two months after it was convulsed by ethnic violence, Manipur is teetering on what many believe is the brink of a civil war. Clashes between the majority Meitei and Kuki communities have left more than 100 dead and over 400 wounded.
… The majority Meiteis make up more than half of Manipur’s estimated 3.3 million people. Some 43% of the people are Kukis and Nagas, the two predominant tribal communities, who live in the rolling hills. Most Meiteis follow the Hindu faith, while most Kukis adhere to Christianity.
Another church is burning in Manipur – Modi is in the USA. pic.twitter.com/PJcLUaGBut
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) June 20, 2023
The president of a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., who had been warned by Canada’s spy agency that he was in danger, was shot and killed on the gurdwara grounds on Sunday, prompting a new flare-up of old tensions that have simmered since the Air India bombing 38 years ago.
At a news conference Monday, RCMP confirmed Hardeep Singh Nijjar was found in a truck outside the Guru Nanak Gurdwara suffering gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.
The president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., was shot dead Sunday night in the temple’s parking lot, according to members of the province’s Sikh community.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death was confirmed by the temple’s vice-president and Sikh community groups, and he is being mourned widely on social media.
… The vice-president of the gurdwara, Amandeep Singh Johal, told CBC News that Nijjar, 45, was an activist with the Sikh independence group Sikhs for Justice.
In 2016, CBC News reported that the government of India was seeking Nijjar’s extradition from Canada on charges related to extremism.
India behind this? I would not be surprised given Junior’s select tolerance for extremism.
More … Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Khalistani leader shot dead inside gurdwara in Canada
h/t DM
THE MUMBAI police have begun the process of seeking extradition of Chaneparambil Mohammed Bashir, alleged SIMI leader and an accused in the Mulund blasts of 2003, who was detained by the authorities in Canada after he tried to fly out from there earlier this week.
A Red Corner Notice was issued against him after he was named as one of the wanted accused in the Mulund blasts case, in which12 people had lost their lives.
Better known as CAM Bashir, he was born in Kerala and was an aeronautical engineer before he is alleged to have become the national president of the banned SIMI. His name was on the list of India’s 50 most wanted criminals who were alleged to be hiding in Pakistan in 2011.
OTTAWA — India’s foreign minister is condemning images of a parade said to have occurred in Brampton, Ont., which seemed to portray the 1984 assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards.
India feels a giant demon breathing on her shoulder.
The more China strengthens its military and economic power, the more threatened India feels. The main reason is China’s aggressive actions along the China-India border, known as the Line of Actual Control. India and China share a de facto border of 3,440 km in total — containing rivers, lakes and snowcaps at high altitudes.
