Sikh Woman Murdered in UK; Canada Changes Immigration Rules

July

2026

24-year-old Sikh woman Kirandeep Kaur from Piddi village, Tarn Taran district, who had moved to the UK two years ago, was murdered on 12 Jul on Uxbridge Road in Hayes, UK. Another man in his 20s was found outside the property with stab injuries and is in hospital. No further information is available on him at this time. The Met Police arrested 44-year-old Daniel Sean James, who appeared before Willesden Magistrates’ Court on 13 Jul, charged with murder, attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article. The victim's father, Sukhdev Singh, and mother, Baljit Kaur, said they had sold their land to send their daughter to the UK on a student visa. Kirandeep later secured a work permit and had been living and working there. Sikh groups have expressed concerns that the attack may have been an anti-Sikh hate crime. In Canada, the Hamilton Police have identified 29-year-old Taranpreet Singh Sidhu, who was found dead in a culvert in Stoney Creek. Taranpreet came to Canada in 2022 and worked as a truck driver in Brampton. The cause of his death has not been disclosed. Meanwhile, Canada has announced that it is pausing new applications under its Parents and Grandparents Program amid a massive scaling back of immigration. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced it will pause the intake of new sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents until further notice. Officials said they will instead focus on processing existing applications, planning to approve up to 15K people for permanent residence through the program in 2026–27. Parents and grandparents of immigrants can still travel to Canada through the country’s Super Visa program, which allows eligible applicants to stay with their children or grandchildren for up to five years at a time and provides multiple entries over 10 years. Concurrently, thousands of students, mostly Indians including Panjabi, who attended the Business Management Diploma program offered through Portage College and the Canadian Institute of Osteopathic Therapy in Calgary, are in limbo as they are not getting a post-graduation work permit from Canada. These graduates claimed they paid up to CAD 32K tuition fee each, and then the Canadian Immigration changed the rule, making non-credit programs ineligible for the work permit. IRCC, meanwhile, said there has been no change to any rule (earlier coverage).