Days after suspected Khalistani supporters attempted to set the Indian consulate in the US city of San Francisco on fire, the Indian-American community members held a peace rally in front of the consulate to express solidarity with India.
The rally-goers described the attempted arson as an act of terror and demanded that those involved by punished.
Indian Ambassador to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu visited the consulate on Thursday and met the Indian diplomats and officials posted there.
Earlier this month on July 2, a video by Khalistan supporters showed the act of arson at the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, reports PTI, adding that it was the second such act of violence within months.
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On March 19, a group of pro-Khalistan protesters attacked and damaged the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, noted PTI.
In recent months, Khalistan supporters have staged protests at Indian missions in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In Washington DC, they personally targeted the envoy Sandhu and, in London, one Khalistan supporter climbed the embassy and took the Indian flag off the pole in the balcony. However, the flag was retrieved by an Indian official.
India has asked its partner countries such as Canada, the UK and the US not to give space to “extremist Khalistani ideology” as it is “not good” for bilateral relations, reported PTI.
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The “radical, extremist Khalistani ideology” is not good for India or its partner countries such as the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in New Delhi early this month, reported PTI.
Khalistan is what some extremist groups call a proposed Sikh nation to be carved out of India. Supporters of Khalistan waged a bloody insurgency in Punjab for decades that ebbed in the 1990s. While the Khalistan movement and the insurgency largely ebbed in India, there are substantial pro-Khalistan pockets abroad, particularly in UK and Canada that actively support the Khalistani cause.
