BackCanada shared intelligence on murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar with India weeks ago: Justin Trudeau
Canadian PM Trudeau says there is shared evidence that Indian government agents were potentially involved in a Sikh separatist leader's murder in British Columbia. The US and White House have also expressed concern and called for accountability.
PremiumCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that the shared evidence that Indian government agents were potentially involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia with New Delhi weeks ago.
Trudeau added, "We are there to work constructively with India. We hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter".
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Earlier this week, the Canadian Prime Minister said they had credible intelligence linking Indian government agents to the murder in June of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Trudeau said the intelligence included communications of Indian officials present in Canada, adding that some of the information was provided by an unidentified ally in the Five Eyes alliance.
Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
However, Trudeau has not provided any details about what Canada's spy agencies have collected.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States wanted to see "accountability" over the killing.
Also read: India-Canada tensions: ‘Deeply concerned...critical that probe proceeds’ says Antony Blinken
"We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised," Blinken told reporters in a press briefing.
The White House has raised similar concerns, but Blinken is the most senior U.S. official to have commented on the issue thus far.
"We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues, not just consulting but coordinating with them on this issue," Blinken said.
"It would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability," he added.
INDIA-CANADA and KHALISTAN
Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside India's Punjab, with about 770,000 people reporting Sikhism as their religion in the 2021 census. The Indian government had suppressed Sikh insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s in Punjab.
The separatists wanted the creation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Although there is hardly any support for the insurgency left in India, small groups of Sikhs in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States support the separatist demand and occasionally stage protests outside Indian embassies.
India, which remains wary of any revival of the insurgency, has long been unhappy over Sikh separatist activity in Canada.
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