New Delhi:
Two males had been stabbed inside a gurdwara in Canada on Friday morning after they tried to cease a person trying to entry the prayer space. The accused, a 27-year-old, has been arrested for stabbing two folks with a screwdriver and disrupting morning prayers on the Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple in Edmonton.
On Friday morning, at 4:49, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) acquired stories of a male strolling in site visitors on Freeway 15 close to Horsehill Highway. Lower than half an hour later, at 5:05, police started receiving stories of a stabbing on the gurdwara within the space.
Based on preliminary stories, a male entered the gurudwara and tried to entry the prayer space when he was confronted by workers. “The confrontation then escalated and two male patrons of the gurdwara had been stabbed. Witnesses intervened and detained the person till Northeast Department patrol officers arrived at 5:10 am and instantly took him into custody,” the police said.
The 2 victims — a 75-year-old male and a 51-year-old male — had been taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening accidents.
The accused has a historical past of assaults, Performing Inspector Eric Stewart mentioned throughout a press briefing.
“Right now we will let you know that the 27-year-old man is thought to police and has a major historical past of violent offences relationship again to 2015. Now we have discovered that he was launched from a federal establishment yesterday, August 20, the place he had been serving a sentence for aggravated assault and assaulting a peace officer, and he didn’t report back to his designated Edmonton midway home,” Stewart mentioned.
Investigators are probing whether or not the incident was motivated by hate. Fees towards the 27-year-old are nonetheless pending, and subsequently his title has not been revealed but.
Edmonton Police Service Chief Warren Driechel assured the general public that every one relevant prison code provisions, together with these related to hate-motivated offences like Invoice C9, can be thought-about whether it is discovered that the incident was motivated by ideology.
“This stage of violence has no place in our metropolis, and we wish to make sure the Sikh group and all Edmontonians that we’re taking this incident and their security, significantly.”
He urged folks to keep up endurance and belief within the investigation and acknowledged issues over rising hate crimes.
“I see the heightened geopolitical tensions and rising polarisation all over the world exhibiting up regionally. These realities cannot be ignored, and we have to name them out after they occur. We can not stay silent,” he added.
World Sikh Organisation Board Member Harman Kandola condemned the incident and known as it a “reminder of the rising menace of anti-Sikh hate.”
Describing the assault as “appalling”, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed solidarity with these injured.
“The assault on the Nanaksar Gurdwara in Edmonton this morning is appalling. My ideas are with the 2 individuals who had been injured and the broader group that’s shaken by this horrible occasion. Nobody ought to ever really feel unsafe of their place of worship,” Carney wrote in a publish on X.
The assault on the Nanaksar Gurdwara in Edmonton this morning is appalling. My ideas are with the 2 individuals who had been injured and the broader group that’s shaken by this horrible occasion.
Nobody ought to ever really feel unsafe of their place of worship. I wish to thank the Edmonton…
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) August 21, 2026
Additional investigation into the incident is underway.
