Justin Trudeau announced on Monday night that he believes that the June 18 murder of a Sikh secessionist leader in British Columbia could have been executed on orders from the Indian government, which would represent a serious violation of Canada’s sovereignty. and human rights.
In fact, Canada expelled an Indian diplomat before Prime Minister Trudeau made the announcement in person at his country’s parliament in Ottawa. The Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was a defender of the independence of the territory in the north of the country that separatists call Khalistan. He had Canadian nationality.
“Over the past few weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively investigating credible allegations of a possible link between Indian government agents and the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said, to a shock in parliament. “Any involvement by a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he added.
Nijjar, 45, was a known promoter of separatism for the Sikh community in India. He was shot to death by two masked men in a parking lot in the town of Surrey, British Columbia. His death sparked protests in July in Canada, the US and the UK, with other activists accusing Modi’s government of being behind the murder. The Indian government has denied through its spokespersons any involvement in the homicide.
G-20 Summit
Trudeau also informed the Canadian House of Commons that he raised the incident last week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 summit in India. According to Trudeau, he told Modi that any involvement by his government in the killing would be unacceptable, and asked for his cooperation in the investigation. Last night he raised the issue again at the G-7 summit, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York this week.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said the head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a result of those suspicions. “If this is proven to be true, it would be a serious violation of our sovereignty and the basic rules of how countries treat each other,” Joly said, according to Ap.
Canada has a Sikh community of more than 770,000 people, 2% of a total population of 38 million. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that originated in northern India in the 15th century. Both inside and outside the country, many Sikh activists advocate the creation of a republic of Khalistan. The government and most Indian political parties oppose this and other types of secessionism, which is illegal in the country.
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, indicated that the country’s national security adviser and the head of the country’s intelligence service have traveled to India to meet with their counterparts and obtain more information. Before the announcement, Trudeau had raised the issue separately with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The Sikh independence movement peaked in the 1980s in the state of Punjab, with repeated violent insurgent-style attacks and thousands of deaths. In 1984, the Indian army intervened in the Golden Temple in Amritsar to empty it of activists, with numerous civilian casualties. Prime Minister Indira Gandi’s Sikh bodyguards later killed her in retaliation for that operation.
In one of the most violent acts of air terrorism before 9/11, an Air India plane en route from Canada to India was shot down by a bomb over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people on board. Inconclusive investigations suggest that the attack was carried out by Sikh extremists from Canada.
Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has been criticized by human rights groups and the opposition at home for a hardening of its Hindu nationalist politics and what they see as a growing repression of dissidents.
In 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, by his compatriots. His death generated international condemnation for the role and responsibility of senior Saudi officials in the murder.
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