Canada’s investigation into India’s alleged involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver last year was a “political coercion”, India’s foreign minister later said. three Indian citizens arrested for the murder.
Canadian police arrested the three men on Friday for murder. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, said they were investigating their links to the Indian government, “if any”. He immigrated to Canada in 1997 and received citizenship 18 years later.
He is wanted by Indian authorities on terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder charges, charges he denies. On June 18, 2023, he was shot and killed by a masked assailant in the parking lot of the Sikh temple he led in suburban Vancouver.
Nijjar’s assassination soured diplomatic relations between Ottawa and New Delhi last year after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said relations were unfavorable. “credible accusation” linking Indian intelligence to crime.
India has rejected the allegations as “absurd,” temporarily suspending visa processing and forcing Canada to significantly reduce its diplomatic presence in the country.
“It is their political will in Canada to blame India,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
New Delhi has tried to persuade Ottawa not to grant visas or political legitimacy to Sikh separatist groups, Jaishankar said, because they “pose problems for them (Canada), for us and also for our relations.”
He added that Canada “has not provided us with any evidence in some cases and the police have not cooperated with us either.”
Jaishankar said India would wait for Canadian police to provide information on those arrested, adding that the suspects “appear to be Indians from gangs.”
“We have to wait for the police to tell us,” he said. “But, as I said, one of our concerns that we expressed to them is, you know, that they have allowed organized crime from India, particularly from Punjab, to operate in Canada. “
The three Indian nationals, all aged in their 20s, were arrested in Edmonton, the provincial capital of Alberta, on charges of first degree murder and conspiracy. They are accused of being the aggressor, driver and lookout for his murder last June. Canadian police said they were aware that “other people may have played a role” in the killing.
Trudeau, for his part, spoke on Saturday during a event in Toronto to celebrate Sikh heritage and culture, recognizing that many Sikhs in Canada “feel uncomfortable, and perhaps even fearful at this time”, while encouraging confidence in the justice system.
“Let us remain calm and firm in our commitment to democratic principles and our justice system,” he said.
Trudeau said the arrests were “important because Canada is a nation of law with a strong and independent justice system and a fundamental commitment to protecting all of its citizens.”
Nijjar advocated the creation of a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved in India. Thousands of people were killed in the 1980s during the separatist movement, crushed by Indian security forces. The movement has largely died out in India, but in the Sikh diaspora – the largest community of which is in Canada, with around 770,000 people – it continues to enjoy support from a vocal minority.
India has repeatedly warned the governments of Canada, the United States and Britain that Sikh separatists are seeking to resonate.
In November, the U.S. Department of Justice charged an Indian national living in the Czech Republic with planning a similar assassination attempt on U.S. soil.
A Washington Post investigation revealed last week that Indian foreign intelligence officials were involved in the plot, a claim New Delhi rejects.
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