Videos on social media showed demonstrators protesting outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple in the city of Brampton, where Indian diplomats were visiting ahead of Diwali celebrations. Some protesters held yellow Khalistan flags, representing a region of India they hope to one day carve out as a Sikh homeland.

As tensions rose, isolated fights broke out. Canada’s Peel regional police said on Monday that three people had been “arrested and criminally charged” following the attack and they were investigating “several acts of unlawfulness”.

The group Sikhs for Justice alleged in a statement the protest “turned violent” when a group of “Indo-Canadian nationalists, incited by Indian consulate officials” attacked the Sikh demonstrators. The group says some attenders retreated into the temple and began throwing rocks and wielding iron rods.