Indian-Americans rally in Silicon Valley to condemn violence against Hindus in Canada, Bangladesh

Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley gathered for a solidarity rally at Milpitas City Hall to condemn violence against Hindus in Canada and Bangladesh. Community leaders urged US leaders to denounce the attacks, protect human rights, and hold the respective governments accountable for ensuring the safety of Hindu minorities.

The Bay Area in California, home to over 200,000 Indian-Americans, saw participants expressing outrage over recent incidents, including the attack on Hindu devotees at the Hindu Sabha Temple in Brampton, Canada.

Protesters raised slogans such as “Stop Khalistani terrorism, protect Canadian-Hindus” and “Stop Islamist terrorism, protect Bangladeshi-Hindus”.

“We saw videos of the Khalistani terrorists invading the temple premises and beating up men, women, and children. It was horrible to see Hindus who had gone to celebrate the Diwali festival being hounded by those goons,” a media release from the rally said, reported the news agency PTI.

The release also criticised Canadian authorities. “To make matters worse, we saw that the police were already infiltrated with Khalistan supporters and were beating up Hindu devotees. Freedom of violence is being dressed up as freedom of expression in Canada. We have lost all faith in the Trudeau government in protecting the basic human rights of Canadian-Hindus,” the media release stated.

“We are one world, one family, one future.” said Ramesh Japra from Americans for Hindus organisation. He highlighted the attacks by Khalistanis in Canada and radical groups in Bangladesh as alarming trends.

Pushpita Prasad from the Coalition of Hindus in North America (CoHNA) raised concerns about her team being targeted by Sikhs for Justice, a banned organisation in India that continues to operate in Canada and the US.

The rally called for decisive action against rising extremism and stressed the need to safeguard minority communities globally.