The Khalistani protest organizer who attacked Hindus at a temple in Canada was taken into custody

A Hindu temple in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was violently invaded last Sunday, leading to the arrest and charging of the main organizer of Canada’s so-called Khalistan referendum.

Peel Regional Police (PRP) said in a statement on Saturday that Brampton resident Inderjeet Gosal, 35, was taken into custody and charged with assault with a weapon on Friday. According to the statement, he was freed with restrictions and is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton later.

After Khalistani radicals beat Hindu-Canadian devotees during a protest at the Hindu Sabha temple, Gosal was taken into custody on November 8.

At the Gore Road rally, people started brandishing sticks and flags as weapons, and the protest turned violent. Police started looking into a number of crimes, many of which were caught on camera. They are still reviewing the material in an effort to find more suspects.

Gosal was given a conditional release and is expected to show up in court later. A Strategic Investigative Team has been established by the police to continue investigating the events of November 3 and 4. According to them, these inquiries take time, and when people are identified, arrests are made.

Gosal is regarded as the lieutenant of Gurpatwant Pannun, general lawyer for Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). Following Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 of last year, he took over as the primary Canadian organizer for the referendum. After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons three months after Nijjar’s murder that there were “credible allegations” of a possible connection between Indian agents and the crime, ties between New Delhi and Ottawa began to deteriorate. India had called those accusations “motivated” and “absurd.”

According to Canadian authorities, Gosal was also one of 13 Canadians targeted by violent criminal activity directed at pro-Khalistan elements. In response to those Canadian accusations, India expelled six ambassadors and officials and withdrew six more.

Canadian politicians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, Toronto MP Kevin Vuong, and MP Chandra Arya, have widely condemned the Khalistani extremists’ attack on the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton, Canada. “Our country’s leaders have failed to protect Hindus,” said the MP from Toronto.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condemned the attack in a post on X, writing, “I strongly condemn the deliberate attack on a Hindu temple in Canada. Equally appalling are the cowardly attempts to intimidate our diplomats. Such acts of violence will never weaken India’s resolve. We expect the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law.”