Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Vikram Doraiswami was prevented from entering a gurdwara in Scotland on Friday by a group of Pro-Khalistan activists, India Today reported.
The incident happened amid tense diplomatic relations between India and Canada over the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was designated by India as a “terrorist” in July 2020.
The Indian high commissioner was stopped by a group of Sikh activists as they told him he was “not welcome”.
A pro-Khalistan Sikh activist said they found out that Doraiswami had a meeting scheduled with the gurdwara committee of the Glasgow Gurdwara on Albert Drive.
Read: Sikhs set Indian consulate in San Francisco on fire
“A few people turned up and told him he was not welcome. There was a slight confrontation. I don’t think the gurdwara committee is too happy about what happened. But Indian officials are not welcome in any gurdwara in the UK,” the activist said.
The diplomatic spat between Canada and India worsened after both countries expelled each other’s envoys in a tit-for-tat move. The episode began with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleging the involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s killing.
While rejecting the allegations as absurd and motivated, India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat soon after Ottawa expelled an Indian official over the case.
