At Peshawar, the Mahatma will address a big political conference to be attended by 50,000 Red Shirt volunteers and one lakh Pathans, including many from the transborder areas.
The incident is being investigated as a targeted killing. According to the police report, 28 Sikh community members have been killed in the province in the past.
Pakistan's consul general in Toronto met with Khalistani figures, including aides to fugitive Amritpal Singh, in a meeting that took place close to Toronto in summer 2020. The meeting was ostensibly to present a memorandum about the killing of Sikhs in Peshawar, but also included leaders of the Khalistan movement in Canada. This is part of Pakistan's wider effort to meet with such elements and organise jathas or pilgrimages to Pakistan.