On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada made the surprising accusation that authorities brokers from India had been concerned within the killing of a Sikh neighborhood chief in British Columbia in June.
The allegations have widened a rising rift between Canada and India and set off a political dispute between the 2 already apprehensive nations.
Here’s what we all know:
Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and what occurred to him?
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was born within the North Indian state of Punjab. After a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to achieve entry to Canada, he moved there within the mid-1990s, according to Indian news reports, simply after a interval of Indian authorities crackdowns on a Sikh separatist motion.
In Canada, Mr. Nijjar labored as a plumber, obtained married and had two sons. He obtained his Canadian citizenship in 2015, in accordance with Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, in a post on X, previously referred to as Twitter. In 2020, Mr. Nijjar grew to become the president of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.
Mr. Nijjar was a self-proclaimed “Sikh nationalist who believes in and helps Sikhs’ proper to self-determination and independence of Indian-occupied Punjab via a future referendum,” in accordance with an open letter he wrote to the Canadian authorities in 2016. He had been a key determine in British Columbia rallying votes for a referendum in Canada supporting the institution of a nation referred to as Khalistan from a part of Punjab State.
The Indian authorities declared Mr. Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, a long time after he left India. It accused him of plotting a violent assault in India and main a terrorist group referred to as the Khalistan Tiger Drive. In Punjab, nevertheless, politicians and journalists asserted that regardless of such fees in opposition to him, many locals had by no means heard of him or his motion.
Mr. Nijjar was shot in June close to the Sikh temple that he led. Whereas investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police later mentioned he had been ambushed by masked males, they didn’t disclose if the assault had been politically motivated.
What did Canada say?
On Monday, the Canadian prime minister informed lawmakers that “brokers of the federal government of India” had been linked to Mr. Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil.
Proof of the ambush was primarily based on intelligence gathered by the Canadian authorities, in accordance with Mr. Trudeau, who added that he had raised this concern immediately with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India “in no unsure phrases” on the Group of 20 summit this month in New Delhi.
“Any involvement of a overseas authorities within the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Trudeau mentioned on Monday, including that Canada would strain India to cooperate with investigations into Mr. Nijjar’s loss of life.
Canada’s overseas minister, Mélanie Joly, additionally introduced that it had expelled an Indian diplomat, whom she described because the de facto head of India’s intelligence company in Canada.
How did India reply?
The Indian authorities has vehemently denied the allegations by Mr. Trudeau. Mr. Modi “fully rejected” them, in accordance with India’s overseas ministry.
In an announcement, the ministry workplace additionally spurned “any makes an attempt to attach the federal government of India” to Mr. Nijjar’s killing and referred to as the accusations “absurd.”
In a tit-for-tat transfer in opposition to Canada, India expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in India.
The Indian authorities additionally fired again at Canada, accusing the nation of sheltering “extremists and terrorists” who “proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
India has lengthy said that Canada is harboring Sikh terrorists and offering funding to create Khalistan. Previously, Indian officers have additionally accused Britain, the USA and Australia of passivity in opposition to separatist actions of their nations.
Mr. Trudeau rejected India’s denial on Tuesday morning. “We aren’t seeking to provoke or escalate,” he informed reporters in Ottawa earlier than flying to New York for the United Nations Basic Meeting. “We’re merely laying out the info as we perceive them, and we wish to work with the federal government of India.”
