Wild speculation over possible motivations for Thursday’s bomb blast at a popular Indian restaurant in Mississauga has exacerbated tensions within local South Asian communities.As police continued their manhunt Saturday for two suspects behind the audacious late-night attack, which injured 15 people at a Bombay Bhel restaurant, media and online commenters suggested a multiplicity of causes, from white supremacy to Islamic terror to Sikh nationalism.Such speculation prompted the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee (OGC), a major Sikh organization, to take the unusual step of condemning both the attack itself and the rumours that followed — some of which it claims have been spread by “foreign media outlets,” in particular Indian media.“Upon further investigation, we can verify that Indian media outlets have engaged in the spread of misinformation regarding this tragedy,” the committee said.The written statement, co-signed by OGC spokesperson Amarjit Singh Mann and OGC member Bhagat Singh Brar, signals distrust within the Sikh community of Indian officials in Canada. It criticizes the Indian Consulate of Toronto for overstepping its diplomatic reach by establishing a hotline to gather information on the bombing. People with possible information on the case should be contacting Peel police, the committee said, not the Indian Consulate. It called upon Indian officials “to stay within their diplomatic parameters when operating in Canada and to immediately end their continued interference in Canadian domestic matters.”Read more: What we know and don’t know about the Mississauga bombingA spokesperson for the Indian Consulate of Toronto declined to comment on the Sikh statement.One official with the Gurdwaras Committee, speaking to the Star on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized as an official spokesperson, said the statement reflected “deep — and unwarranted — anxiety within the community.& ...
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