New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada is a “rule-of-law country” with a strong and independent justice system and a fundamental commitment to protect its citizens. These remarks came a day after three Indian men were charged with the murder of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead in June outside a gurudwara in Surrey, B.C., which is a Vancouver suburb with a very significant Sikh population. Months on, Trudeau’s comments citing “credible” allegations of the involvement of the Indian government, precipitated a diplomatic storm with New Delhi, which only went onto cause deep strains within India-Canada ties and also triggered stresses between India and other ‘five eyes’ countries.
As per the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Trudeau said on Saturday, May 4 at a Toronto gala celebrating Sikh heritage and culture, “This is important because Canada is a rule-of-law country with a strong and independent justice system, as well as a fundamental commitment to protecting all its citizens.”
Quoting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the country’s police force, the Canadian PM said, “As the RCMP stated, the investigation remains ongoing, as does a separate and distinct investigation not limited to involvement of the three people arrested yesterday.”
CBC cites RCMP Assistant Commissioner David Teboul, the force’s commander for the Pacific region, as having said on Friday, May 3, that he wouldn’t comment on the alleged links between the three men arrested and Indian officials but noted the force is “investigating connections to the government of India.”
What would cause more concern in Indian circles is that police in Canada have said they had worked with US law enforcement agencies, and hinted that more arrests might be coming. India has been keen to limit the damage from Canada going public with this with reacting belligerently at first and then hoping to make it about Canada alone. All subsequent information about Canada being in constant touch with US intelligence has added to the disquiet in Indian government circles.
PTI reports that India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar has on Saturday said that what is happening in poll-bound Canada over the killing of Nijjar is mostly due to their internal politics and has nothing to do with India.
The Indian government is already under pressure over a matter related to a botched assassination bid allegedly supervised by an Indian government official, having come up to the trial stage and a person, Nikhil Gupta, already apprehended as the main accused at the centre of the plot, this time to assassinate Gurwant Singh Pannun, another Khalistani activist and US-Canadian citizen whom India regards as a terrorist. The Washington Post in a detailed story last week, titled, An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India, wrote that US intelligence believes that the-then RAW chief, Samant Goel allegedly approved the assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The newspaper report also named RAW officer, Vikram Yadav, who was implicated in hiring a hit team to assassinate him, a plan that eventually fell through.
