India, March 23 -- A leading Jewish advocacy organisation has joined forces with Indo-Canadian groups to disassociate the Nazi hate symbol of the hooked cross from the swastika, which is revered by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. That development comes as a law enforcement agency and a municipality in Canada have also dropped allusions to the swastika as a hate symbol.

In a statement, B'nai Brith Canada said the Nazis adopted the Hakenkreuz or hooked cross to represent that movement in the 1920s. In September 1935, the Nazi party adopted "an emblem containing the Hakenkreuz as the imperial and national flag of the Third Reich. This symbol contains features that render it distinct from the sacred Swastika and has become synonymous with hate ...