Sikh activists in US, Canada facing threats after Trudeau linked leader’s killing to India
Ottawa: As a physician specializing in addiction, Dr. Jasmeet Bains, the first Sikh American elected to the California assembly, was used to risky situations.
The Kashmir Media Service in a report stated Bains said she was shocked when four men came to her office, shortly after California adopted her resolution declaring the killing of thousands of Sikhs in India in 1984 a genocide. The men, who appeared to be of Indian origin, warned they would “do whatever it takes to go after you,” Bains said.
The threat was just the beginning, she said and added she has received more than 100 threatening text messages. She spotted someone taking photos of her Bakersfield home from a parked truck, and the lock on her mailbox was broken repeatedly.
Security keeps watch outside a restaurant as California Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains, the first Sikh-American politician to be elected in the California State Legislature, speaks to a luncheon gathering in Artesia, California, US.
Bains reported the incident at her office to the local police, and the surveillance of her home to the state assembly Sergeant-at-Arms.
In late September, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his administration had credible evidence that the Indian government was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia, Bains said the Sergeant-at-Arms conducted a security assessment at her home and urged her to take precautions. The FBI contacted her about the threats in her office in October, Bains said.
Bains said she began screening phone calls and avoiding traveling alone. She occasionally requests a security detail while attending official events.
“My life has changed,” Bains said while talking to a media outlet and adding, “I don’t go anywhere alone anymore. I make sure my staff is with me at all times, which is hard for someone as independent as me.”
It was also learnt that 19 Sikh community leaders, including three elected US officials, who said that they or their organizations have been targeted with threats and harassment in the United States and Canada over the last year – even as law enforcement agencies pursue criminal investigations into the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada and the foiled assassination attempt of another separatist leader in the US.
