Death – Obituary – Accident and Crime News : Justin Trudeau Urges India to Take Canadian Allegations Seriously
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called on India to “take seriously” Canada’s allegations that its government agents were involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader. This statement comes after the US Justice Department unveiled similar explosive allegations earlier this week.
The US Justice Department alleged the involvement of an unnamed Indian government official in an alleged plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen who resides in New York. Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, was indicted on charges of murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
These allegations by the US mirror Canada’s claims from September that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. While New Delhi has consistently pushed back against these allegations, calling them absurd, it has opened a high-level inquiry into the charges laid by US prosecutors.
Both Pannun and Nijjar had advocated for the creation of a Sikh homeland from India, known as the Khalistan movement. Trudeau emphasized that Canada has been working closely with its American counterparts since August on these “very serious allegations”.
India has been urged by Canada to provide more cooperation and engagement into the investigations of Nijjar’s killing, while India demands more evidence before pursuing the case. The Indian foreign ministry spokesperson doubled down on Delhi’s allegations that Canada was promoting “anti-India extremists”.
Trudeau’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Delhi in September resulted in the Canadian leader stating that there were “credible allegations” of the Indian state’s involvement in Nijjar’s murder. The allegations led to a deterioration in Indo-Canadian relations, with each country expelling a senior diplomat from the other and India suspending visa services for Canadians.
The recent US indictment now poses a threat to US-India relations. The indictment states that an unnamed Indian government official offered to pay $100,000 for Pannun’s assassination. Gupta, who was named in the indictment, was arrested in the Czech Republic in June and accused of acting as a middle-man for the Indian government agent.
India has responded to the allegations by setting up a high-level inquiry, as the issue “impinges on our national security interests”. The Indian foreign ministry stated that relevant departments were already examining the matter.