Currently, Indian officials are suspected to have killed or propelled the killing of a Sikh separatist leader that was living in Canada.
Sikhs are the people that practice the Sikh religion, which is in India but is a monotheistic religion. Sikhs are primarily located in the state of Punjab (northern India) and have been calling for their separation from India to form a new nation called Kalistan. However, India has not granted this separation.
The leader in question was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader who was linked to many Sikh groups that were either banned or flagged for terrorism. Many international terrorist attacks, including the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, were linked to Sikh separatists that resided in Canada. Nijjar was designated by the Indian Government as a terrorist. Nijjar was killed outside of a temple in Surrey, British Columbia by attackers who were not identified. Although Nijjar died in June, the manner in which the Canadian government handled the death was the cause of the international tensions today.
Justin Trudeau, after the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, announced that there was some evidence that the Indian Government had a connection with the killing, causing India to suspend visa services for Canada.
The implications of this on the world are brutal, as the United States, ally to both Canada and India, has been thrown in the middle of this debacle. This also jeopardizes the relationship between India and North America, in a time where it is crucial for the United States to hold onto its allies. Since India took a pseudo-neutral stance in the struggle between US and Russian relations (They joined BRICS, an economic alliance, but also maintained a neutral stance with western Europe, Canada, US, and Australia). If the western world fully loses India, then BRICS will likely overtake NATO as the economic leading force (India is the 5th largest economy by GDP).
