Toronto: Canadian law enforcement has seized several firearms from a residence in Surrey in British Columbia, after a video emerged of people gathered with weapons at an event there. Police haven’t identified the persons seen in the video or the owner of the residence.
However, social media accounts identified the owner as Harjit Singh Pattar, an associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the pro-Khalistan figure who was killed on June 18 last year. A person familiar with Pattar said that the video was from a pre-wedding ceremony for his son. Pattar, the person added, was associated with the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice.
In a release issued on Friday, the Surrey detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP said that it became aware on Thursday morning of a video circulating online where it was alleged that it showed a “group of people dancing with firearms was filmed in Surrey.”
Surrey RCMP’s South Community Response Unit (SCRU) took conduct of the investigation and later in the day confirmed the address where the video may have been filmed. A Criminal Code investigation was initiated and contact was made with the property owner. At around 5.30 pm on Thursday, “SCRU seized several firearms from the property owner.”
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{{/usCountry}}“The investigation continues in order to identify the individuals in the video. SCRU will be reaching out to multiple partner agencies to advance the investigation,” the release said.
“We understand this incident was extremely alarming to the community at large,” Superintendent Harm Dosange, Community Services Officer for the Surrey RCMP, said. “Public safety is our top priority and our officers worked quickly to seize the firearms in question,” he added.
The person Hindustan Times spoke to also said there have previously been reports sent to the RCMP and other agencies of caches of arms at places in the Lower Mainland region, which includes Surrey, which were allegedly owned by pro-Khalistan elements.
In June this year, the outlet Globe and Mail reported, as part of a lengthy investigation, that it was told by two sources that five men, who were led by Nijjar, “undertook weapons and GPS training, learned to communicate securely and did target practice at three sites in the Lower Mainland” in 2015