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‘Still shaking’: Canada journalist alleges assault by Khalistanis, shares ordeal
They acted like thugs - crowding in on me, grabbing my phone, trying to stop me recording," the journalist said while describing the attack.
Investigative journalist Mocha Bezirgan says he was “surrounded and threatened” by a group of Khalistan supporters and briefly had his phone snatched while filming their weekend rally in downtown Vancouver.
“It just happened two hours ago and I’m still shaking,” Bezirgan told news agency ANI in a phone interview. “They acted like thugs - crowding in on me, grabbing my phone, trying to stop me recording.”
Bezirgan, who has gained a following for documenting Khalistani demonstrations across Canada, the United States, Britain and New Zealand, said an agitator who has previously harassed him online led Sunday’s confrontation.
“All of a sudden I had two or three people up in my face. I started a backup recording on my phone; that’s when one of them yanked it out of my hand,” he said. Vancouver police officers nearby intervened, ordering the man to back off. Bezirgan later filed a statement; no arrests were immediately announced.
The journalist added that the same individual continued shadowing him for several blocks, including onto a SkyTrain platform. “I had nowhere to go. It was clear intimidation,” he said, calling for the man - a British national, according to Bezirgan - to be deported.
Pattern of intimidation
Sunday’s altercation comes amid a string of attacks on reporters covering the separatist movement. In October 2024, Canadian MP Chandra Arya warned Parliament of “growing violence faced by journalists who report on Khalistani extremism,” citing assaults on broadcasters Rishi Nagar, Sameer Kaushal and others, and noting that Bezirgan himself had received death threats
