SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — For the second time in recent months, the Indian Consulate in San Francisco was vandalized. This time, vandals set the entryway ablaze early Sunday morning between 1:30 and 2:30 am.
Ambassador Dr. TV Nagendra Prasad, the Indian Consul General in San Francisco, tells Diya TV the flames were doused quickly by the San Francisco Fire Department, damage was nominal and there were no injuries.
On social media, supporters of Khalistan took credit for the arson, saying “Violence Begets Violence,” a reference to recent killings of Khalistan leaders in Canada, the UK and Pakistan.
In fact, in this image provided to Diya TV by the Consulate, the building was also tagged with graffiti making statements “AKF,” “Long Live Khalistan,” and “Free Amritpal Singh,” a man under arrest in India for his involvement in this long standing separatist movement.
This fire is the latest incident in a string targeting Indian government sites around the globe in recent months.
Back in March, Khalistan Liberation Force Chief Avtar Singh Khanda pulled down the Indian flag from the Indian high commission in London and the San Francisco and Brisbane Consulates were also targeted simultaneously.
In the next couple of months, three pro-Khalistan activists died.
Khanda died in June from cancer, though some of his supporters believe he was poisoned.
Khalistan Commando Force Chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot to death in Lahore, Pakistan in early May. Hardeep Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force — who worked closely with Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — was killed by gunmen outside of a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia a few weeks ago.
Pannun is considered a “terrorist” by the Indian government and is a key figure in the Khalistan referendum movement.
Meanwhile, this attack on the consulate comes just days before “Khalistan Freedom” rallies are planned in Canada, Australia, Italy and the United States. In posters released online, the images of India’s Ambassadors in those nations are listed, calling them “killers.”
American and Indian officials have been quick to condemn this act of violence.
Nearly 40 years after the bombing of Air India Flight 182 strongly believed to have been perpetrated by Khalistani extremists in Canada — the second deadly terrorist attack in North America after 9/11 — it appears a new effort to strike fear in the Indian government and the Indian diaspora is taking root.
The suspects are still at large, but authorities have received surveillance footage from the consulate. You may recall after this consulate was vandalized a few months ago, a sting operation in California led to the arrests of 17 men, four of whom were involved in the previous San Francisco consulate attack.
