Canadian police said Friday that they have made three arrests in the slaying of a Khalistani Terrorist and so called ‘Sikh separatist leader’ Nijjar last June in suburban Vancouver that become the center of a diplomatic spat with India.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said three suspects have been arrested and charged in the slaying of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen in Surrey outside Vancouver. But he said police could not comment on nature of the evidence or the motive. “This matter is very much under active investigation,” Teboul said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India in September when he said that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the slaying of Nijjar. India had accused Nijjar of links to terrorism but angrily denied involvement in the slaying.
Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a ‘plumber’ and also a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. But he had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.
Nijjar was the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara where he was shot dead in broad daylight by masked gunmen.
As a vocal supporter of the Khalistan movement, which advocates for a separate Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab province, he was a wanted man in India, where authorities labelled him a terrorist in 2020.
At the time of his death, he was organizing an unofficial referendum about Khalistan among the Sikh diaspora in B.C. with the organization Sikhs For Justice.
The three suspects are Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh and were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said.
“This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals,” Mooker said.
Killers are allegedly from the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang
All are alleged associates of a criminal group in Punjab and neighboring Haryana state that is associated with notorious Punjabi gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently held in India’s high-security Sabarmati prison in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, according to sources close to the investigation.
Bishnoi is accused by the Indian government of the shooting murder of Punjabi singer-politician Sidhu Moose Wala, a former resident of Brampton, Ont., in Punjab in May 2022, as well as drug smuggling and extortion.
Will Canada apologize to India?
Nijjar’s killing sparked a diplomatic crisis between Canada and India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that intelligence services were investigating information about a potential link between India’s government and the killing.
Last August, Canadian officials told representatives of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in person that Canada had intelligence linking it to Nijjar’s killing.
A month later — on Sept. 18, 2023, not long after returning from a fraught visit to India for the G20 Summit — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons to state that “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and Nijjar’s killing.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he added.
Modi’s government has denied it ordered extrajudicial killings in the U.S. and Canada. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar initially decried the Canadian allegation as “absurd” and accused Canada of harbouring violent extremists.
Canada’s public safety minister declined to confirm a connection to the Indian government Friday, telling reporters on Parliament Hill that such questions are best addressed by the RCMP.
“I have full confidence in the security apparatus of the government of Canada and the work of the RCMP, and the work that the (Canadian) Security Intelligence Service does,” Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said.
“I think the police operation that you see ongoing today confirms that the RCMP take these matters extremely seriously. But questions with respect to particular links or non-links are properly put to the RCMP,” he added.
India has long alleged that Punjabi gangsters are able to use Canada as a base to squeeze money from business owners and others in India, relying on an army of low-paid gunmen to act as collectors and enforcers back home.
India has already been saying that Nijjar’s death could be due to an infighting of Canada based mafia gangs. However, Canada always remain in denial and act stubbornly. Now, as Canada Police has arrested 3 members of Bishnoi gang, the investigation seems to be moving into the direction where India was pointing right from the day one.
Amid such a critical juncture, it is quite important to ask, will Canadian Govt apologize to India for all bad mouthing and wild accusations?
Well, time will tell.
