Police are seeing a suspect in a targeted weekend shooting in one of North America’s largest Sikh temples.
Police were called to Guru Nanak Temple in Surrey around 12:40 p.m. Saturday, where hundreds of people had gathered for a wedding hosted by local home appraiser Kultar Dhott.
Festivities were interrupted by gunshots coming from the temple parking lot. Responding to a flood of calls, Surrey RCMP arrived to find a man shot in the leg. He was rushed to the hospital and was stable but still hospitalized on Sunday.
Witnesses and friends say the man was 54-year-old Harjit Singh Atwal – a prominent Surrey contractor.
Minutes later, police cars surrounded the offices for Radio India and the lavish Surrey home of its general manager Maninder Singh Gill, where they blocked off the road and approached his house at the end of the 56th Street cul-de-sac with guns at the ready.
Suzanne Dennis, who has lived on the street for decades, arrived home Saturday afternoon to see the street cordoned off with yellow tape, and a pair of police vehicles blocking off the avenue for hours before leaving.
RCMP, who say the shooting was targeted, have not confirmed that Mr. Gill is a person of interest in the case and will say only that they are seeking a single male suspect and a white, newer-model four-door sedan seen leaving the scene. No arrests had been made or charges laid by Sunday evening.
But Gurpreet Singh, a newscaster at the Punjabi Radio India, says he has been in touch with Mr. Gill’s family and believes his boss is the alleged shooter police are seeking.
Mr. Singh says the shooting is the result of a continuing feud he traces to an April visit to B.C. by Punjabi government minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan. An apparent insult directed at the minister by a man close to Mr. Atwal sparked an acrimonious barrage between Mr. Atwal and the radio station, Mr. Singh says.
Mr. Singh says does not know what happened to escalate a parking-lot argument into a shootout outside the temple, but said he thinks Mr. Gill would have fired only in self-defence.
“He's a very easygoing person; he doesn’t lose his temper so easily,” he said. “I can only speculate. Whatever I have heard is that people were trying to attack him and he acted in self-defence.”
Mr. Gill, who has been called the “czar of Punjabi entertainment,” has run Radio India since 1999, after making a name for himself as a promoter of Punjabi culture and music in Surrey.
Mr. Atwal is a former member of the militant International Youth Sikh Federation, a group he has since denounced. He campaigned earlier this year to get his name taken off blacklists the Indian government reserves for separatist groups, arguing he hasn’t been involved in Khalistan (Sikh homeland) politics for years.
A spate of violence in Sikh temples in B.C. and Ontario earlier this year – at least one of which involved a kirpan, the ceremonial dagger worn by Khalsa Sikhs – renewed debate over religious extremism, and the risks that the actions of a tiny minority would tarnish perceptions of thousands of others.
But witnesses and community members emphasize this has more to do with personal arguments than religious politics. Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara was quick to distance itself from Saturday’s shooting; the mother of Saturday’s groom, who answered the phone at Mr. Dhott’s Surrey home Sunday, said she and others inside the temple at the time have no idea what sparked the conflict.
“As far as we understand, it was a personal dispute that unfortunately found its way into the Gurdwara parking lot,” said a statement released on behalf of temple president Bikramjit Singh Sandhar. “This event or the individuals involved have no connection with this Gurdwara and the Gurdwara strongly condemns this and every act of violence.”
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