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18-10-2023
LONDON: Pro-Khalistan advocacy group, Sikh for Justice (SFJ), has announced a $21,000 donation to aid those who have been affected by the Israeli bombing in Gaza.
The donation has been sent to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees by the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, in Canada’s British Columbia.
The Gurdwara said that it was making a contribution “in memory of Shaheed Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” who previously served as the Gurdwara president and led the Canadian Khalistan referendum campaign.
Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan campaigner, was assassinated by Indian agents on June 18, 2023, in Surrey. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has blamed the Indian state for sponsoring the killing of Nijjar on Canadian soil.
In a public letter addressing the donation to Palestinian people, SFJ leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun conveyed the shared empathy of Sikhs who have endured analogous hardships and displacements in Punjab under Indian rule.
The SFJ’s general counsel urged the United Nations (UN) to acknowledge the right to self-determination for both Palestinians and Sikhs.
He underlined that once Punjab is liberated from Indian occupation, Sikh principles will ensure that no one in the world suffers from hunger, as Sikh values stand for helping those facing oppression and injustice by occupiers.
SFJ has also announced October 21 as a protest day named “Canada to Palestine, Shutdown Indian Terror Houses”.
It has called for protests outside several Indian missions in Canada, US and Europe, alleging that the Indian missions are being used to monitor, target and kill Sikhs and that these missions should be shut down.
The Canadian government has accused the Indian missions in Canadian cities of Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto of spying on Sikhs to harm them. The UK intelligence has passed the same message to Sikhs in the UK.
The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead.
More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israel invasion that seeks to eliminate Hamas’ leadership after its deadly incursion. Aid groups warn an Israeli ground offensive could hasten a humanitarian crisis.
U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.
A shortage of potable water continues across Gaza, leading humanitarian workers to warn of the risk of disease from drinking untreated water.
Overwhelmed doctors at the territory’s largest hospital struggle to care for patients as supplies of water, fuel and medicine run dangerously low.
Hundreds of civilians killed in the Hamas attacks have yet to be identified by Israeli forensics teams. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
