Anti-India poster placed at Vancouver consulate; India raises complaint

These posters use the word ‘Wanted’ under photographs, naming India’s senior-most diplomats in Canada – its high commissioner to Ottawa and consul generals in Vancouver and Toronto

India has complained to Canadian authorities over a security lapse which led to an anti-India poster being placed at the building housing its Consulate in Vancouver on Tuesday.

India had earlier expressed its concerns to the Canadian authorities about escalation of threats to its diplomats in the country. (File photo)

The poster was similar to those that appeared at various locations in the Metro Vancouver region earlier this week, particularly in the town of Surrey. These posters use the word ‘Wanted’ under the photographs and names of India’s seniormost diplomats in Canada – its High Commissioner to Ottawa and Consul Generals in Vancouver and Toronto.

The poster near the entrance to the building housing the Consulate was removed after it was discovered on Tuesday morning. It appears to have been placed there in the early hours.

A senior Indian official said the Consulate had taken up the matter with “local contact points for remedial action.” While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP is responsible for diplomatic security, the Vancouver Police Department is the local agency in charge.

The lapse occurred despite the secessionist group warning in advance about besieging Indian missions on August 15, and similar posters already making their appearance in the region.

As with the ‘Kill India’ posters earlier, videos of the posters being placed at the Consulate were circulated on social media on Monday, and were amplified by what appeared to be either Pakistan-based or pro-Pakistan handles, many of them created in recent days.

The latest batch of posters referred to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, SFJ’s principal figure in British Columbia. Nijjar was murdered in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara Sahib he headed in Surrey on June 18. SFJ has blamed India for his “assassination”. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team or Investigation Team or IHIT, which is probing the killing, has not ascribed any motive while it seeks the murderers.

Several similar posters had appeared at various locations in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA last month, prior to SFJ conducting the latest round of the so-called Khalistan Referendum in a gurdwara in the area on July 16.

As with the previous campaign, the new posters have appeared before SFJ’s organizes its next referendum in September in Surrey.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had raised the issue of the security of Indian diplomats when he met Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly on the margins of the ongoing Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Jakarta in July.

Joly had reiterated Ottawa’s commitment to the security of the envoy, tweeting Canada “takes very seriously its obligations under the Vienna Convention on the safety of diplomats.”