Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper visited a gurdwara in Vancouver on Thursday.
At the Khalsa Diwan Society’s Sikh Gurdwara, located on the southern edge of Vancouver, a large crowd of supporters gathered at the temple before filing inside.
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The president of the historic Sikh society, which has roots stretching back more than 100 years said Mr. Modi will be the third Indian Prime Minister to visit, after Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit in 1949 and Indira Gandhi’s 42 years ago.
Earlier while leaving from Toronto Mr. Modi tweeted “Leaving for Vancouver, which is the final leg of my Canada visit. Will offer prayers at Gurudwara Khalsa Diwan and Laxmi Narain Temple there.”
In Toronto, Mr. Modi visited the memorial for the victims of Air India Flight 182 that was bombed in 1985.
Mr. Modi was accompanied by Mr. Harper during the visit.
“PM @narendramodi and @pmharper at the Air India memorial,” Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, tweeted.
Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 named “Kanishka”, flying on the Montreal-London-New Delhi route on June 23, 1985, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after being bombed while in Irish airspace.
All 329 passengers and crew on board were killed in the tragedy. Of them, 268 were Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian descent. There were 24 Indian and 27 Britons as well.
Mr. Modi, along with Mr. Harper, interacted with the relatives of the victims who had gathered at the memorial.
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