2 men stabbed during prayers at Sikh temple in north Edmonton

Two men were stabbed during a gathering at a large Sikh temple on the northeastern outskirts of Edmonton — an incident that’s left members worried for their safety.

The attack happened Friday morning at the Nanaksar gurdwara — a large, white, ornate Sikh temple along Manning Drive between Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan.

A man entered the temple and began attacking members of the sangat (the Sikh term for congregation) during morning prayers that were happening ahead of a wedding, temple leadership told Global News.

“He came in and caused a disruption — our morning prayers were interrupted and the guys who were doing the prayer noticed this guy. You know, doesn’t look like he’s a visitor,” said Harmeek Sehgal, a representative from the Nanaksar gurdwara.

The prayer leaders tried to talk to the man, but Sehgal said it didn’t go well.

“The guy apparently wasn’t listening to anything. So they (tried) to subdue the guy. The guy tried to push back,” he said.

“The guys were able to subdue him down, and the police was called at that time.”

Two elderly men were stabbed during the confrontation, the temple’s leadership said, adding they’re believed to be in stable condition.

“The last I heard, they both were talking,” Sehgal said. “The people who were doing the prayers, most of them are elderly, right? So that’s why it took them a group of them, I guess, to subdue him.”

While the two men were injured while trying to diffuse the situation, Sehgal said nothing inside the temple was damaged.

“Luckily no property or physical damage — like specifically to our Sikh scriptures, which are quite sacred to us.”

Police confirmed EMS responded and treated two adult males on scene for non-life-threatening injuries.

Those gathered for the wedding were allowed to begin going back inside the gurdwara around 10:30 a.m. and the wedding proceeded as planned, but the morning’s events cast a pall over the day.

“It was supposed be a joyous occasion, yet here we are having to talk about two people who were seriously injured,” Harman Kandola with the World Sikh Organization of Canada said outside the building on Friday.