Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian intelligence has identified a possible and credible link between the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader assassinated on June 18 in British Columbia, and the Indian government. He also said that he tried to talk about it with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent G20 summit in Delhi.
Nijjar was an important representative of the Sikh community in British Columbia and a staunch supporter of the movement for the foundation of Khalistan, i.e. a sovereign state with a Sikh majority which should arise, according to its supporters, in the Punjab region, between Pakistan and India. He had already been threatened in the past because of his activism, and had already been labeled a separatist terrorist by the Indian government.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said in the House of Commons on Monday. “I continue to strongly urge the Indian government to work with Canada to shed light on this situation.”
