Arrests Made in Sikh Activist’s Murder in Canada, Reports Say

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian police arrested people on Friday linked to the murder of a Sikh activist that sparked a major diplomatic clash between Canada and India, according to media reports. 

Authorities detained suspected hitmen accused of roles in killing Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia last June, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Global News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa that an “active police operation” was underway in relation to the investigation of Nijjar’s murder. Police have scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon in Surrey. 

The CBC report added that authorities are also investigating possible links to three additional murders in Canada. 

In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly described “credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and the killing, sparking a row between the two countries. India has denied having a role, and expelled Canadian diplomats. 

Trudeau and other Canadian officials have largely gone silent about the killing since then, saying they would wait for Canada’s police and justice system to investigate the matter. 

A few months after Trudeau’s accusation, US court documents revealed American authorities had thwarted an alleged assassination attempt against a Sikh activist in New York, and were seeking to extradite the suspect from the Czech Republic. 

Prosecutors in that case allege the hitman was recruited by an agent who was “employed at all times relevant to this Indictment by the Indian government, resides in India, and directed the assassination plot from India.” Last week the Washington Post reported American officials believe the operation was approved by senior-level members of India’s intelligence agency, including its chief at the time.

Read More: Aftermath of an Assassination: Inside the India-Canada Crisis

Nijjar was a prominent voice in a movement to carve out a separate state in India for Sikhs called Khalistan, which the Indian government deems a terrorist threat.

Danish Singh, president of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, said in a statement that he welcomes the reported arrests but believes they “raise disturbing questions about the nexus between the Government of India and criminal gangs.”

--With assistance from Brian Platt.

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