OTTAWA: Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh has again alleged an Indian government hand in the killing of India-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar despite police personnel not giving any evidence of any link to India’s involvement in the killing of Nijjar.
Jagmeet Singh’s NDP has supported the Liberal minority government led by Justin Trudeau in exchange for support on some key bills.
After the Canadian Police announced the arrest of three accused in the killing of Hardep Nijjar, Jagmeet Singh claimed that there was an Indian hand in the same.
In a post on X, Jagmeet Singh wrote, “The Indian government hired assassins to murder a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil – at a place of worship. Today 3 arrests were made. Let me be clear – any Indian agent or state actor that ordered, planned or carried out this murder must be exposed and met with the full force of Canadian law. For Canada, democracy and free speech – there must be Justice for Hardeep Singh Nijjar.”
Last year, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau had also alleged an Indian hand in the killing, a claim that was vehemently denied by India which called it ‘absurd and motivated’.
Candian Police personnel have also not given any evidence of any link to India as was being speculated in Canadian media. Earlier on Friday, Canadian police released photographs of all three persons arrested in the killing of India-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year amid an ongoing probe into alleged connections of the Indian government.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a statement named the three men, all Indian nationals, as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22 and Karan Brar, 22 and released their photographs. The trio were arrested in Edmonton City in Alberta.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) of Surrey, RCMP on Friday (local time) said that on the morning of May 3, IHIT investigators, with the assistance of members from the British Columbia and Alberta RCMP and the Edmonton Police Service, arrested the three men for the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey.
The trio have now been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to the homicide, according to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police press release. Along with photographs of the three accused, the Canadian police have also released the photographs of the car believed to have been used by the suspects in the time leading up to the homicide, in and around the Surrey area.
Addressing reporters at a news conference on Friday, RCMP Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, who leads the Federal Policing Program in the Pacific Region, emphasised the active nature of the investigation into Nijjar’s murder.
“Three suspects have been arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in the killing of Nijjar… We are not able to make any comments on the nature of the evidence… Nor can we speak behind the motive of the murder of Nijjar… However, I will say this matter is very much under active investigation,” he said.
“There are separate and distinct investigations ongoing into these matters, certainly not limited to the involvement of the people arrested today, and these efforts include investigating connections to the government of India,” Teboul also said.
Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc refrained from confirming any connection to the Indian government, asserting that such inquiries should be directed to the RCMP, CTV News reported.
“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,” Leblanc said.
“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, according to CTV News report.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed as he came out of a gurdwara in Surrey in June last year. The video of his killing that reportedly surfaced in March this year showed Nijjar being shot by armed men in what has been described as a “contract killing.”