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Citing intelligence from national security agencies, Canada’s prime minister said there were “credible allegations” that the Indian government was involved in the shooting death of a prominent Sikh leader in British Columbia.
Justin Trudeau told MPs on Monday that Canadian authorities are investigating whether “agents” in New Delhi were behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, which has a large Sikh community.
“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of possible links between Indian government agents and the killings of Canadian citizens,” Trudeau said. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil is a violation of An unacceptable infringement of our sovereignty.”
A senior Indian diplomat was also expelled from Canada on Monday, Indian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolly said. “We will always protect Canadians,” Jolly told reporters. “We hope India will cooperate to get to the bottom of this matter.”
Trudeau was in India last week for the G20 summit and told parliament he raised the allegations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ottawa’s move could further worsen already tense relations between the two countries. Canada’s trade minister last week postponed a trade mission to Mumbai scheduled for October without giving any reason.
There are nearly 800,000 Sikhs in Canada, many of whom live in Surrey and Brampton, a suburb of Toronto. Some Sikh Canadians support the Khalistan independence movement, which would establish a sovereign state in the northern Indian state of Punjab. The Indian government is strongly opposed to the sport.
Modi, often described as a Hindu nationalist, spoke to Trudeau at the G20 summit last week. Modi’s office later described the pro-Khalistan protests in Canada as “promoting separatism and inciting violence against Indian diplomats, damaging diplomatic premises and threatening the Indian community in Canada”.
The Indian government has accused Sikh nationalist Najjar of committing acts of terrorism and blacklisted him. It also offered a reward for his arrest. In 2016, Najjar wrote to Trudeau calling India’s accusations baseless and saying his actions were “peaceful, democratic and protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
After Najjar was killed at the Sikh house of worship where he was president, Canada’s World Sikh Organization called his death an “assassination” and urged Ottawa to investigate India’s role in the killing. British Columbia provincial police said last month that three homicide suspects have been identified but have not yet been identified. No one was arrested.
Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh, said on X (formerly Twitter) that he would “sparse no effort in pursuing justice, including holding Narendra Modi accountable.”
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