Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder.
OTTAWA – Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
Nijjar, 45, was shot and killed in June in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver with a sizable Sikh community, outside a Sikh temple. A diplomatic crisis with New Delhi ensued a few months later when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed proof of Indian government participation.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the three men Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karan Brar, 22.
“We’re looking into their connections, if any, to the Indian government,” RCMP superintendent Mandeep Mooker stated at a live press conference.
Requests for a response from the Indian mission in Ottawa were not answered.
Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi, which had labeled Nijjar a “terrorist”.
Last week the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States.
Canadian police said they had worked with U.S. law enforcement agencies, without giving additional details, and suggested more detentions might be coming.
“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,” said Assistant RCMP Commissioner David Teboul.
The trio, all Indian nationals, were arrested in the city of Edmonton in Alberta on Friday, police said. They are due to arrive in British Columbia by Monday.
Trudeau announced in September that Canadian authorities were pursuing allegations linking Indian government agents to the murder. New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s claim as absurd.
“We welcome the arrests but this does lead to a lot more questions,” said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the Canada-based World Sikh Organization advocacy group.
“Those who have been arrested are part of a hit squad but it’s clear that they were directed,” he said by phone.
Canada had been pressing India to cooperate in its investigation. Last November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder on U.S. soil of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.
“While today’s action … is a step forward, it only scratches the surface,” Pannun said in a statement, calling for action to “dismantle the networks that enable and perpetuate such crimes against Canadians on Canadian soil”.
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