Against the background of the murder of Hardeep Singh Nigar, the prominent leader of the Sikh community in his country, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused،

India is accused of involvement in the murder of the prominent leader of the Sikh community in his country, which New Delhi strongly denied .

 

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 Edited  by |ANNA sam

 

Politic section -  CJ journalist

 

Ottawa- September ,19,2023

 

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Trudeau said on Monday that Canada was investigating "credible allegations that may link" India to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nigar, adding that what happened "goes against the Basic Rules of free, open and democratic societies".

Trudeau's comments come after a tense meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week during the group of twenty summit in India, where Modi accused Canada of not doing enough to suppress "anti-India activities by extremist elements," referring to Sikh separatists.

Trudeau said in Parliament that he raised the issue with Modi, at a meeting on the sidelines of the recent group of twenty summit, adding, in front of the Canadian House of Commons: "any involvement of a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.

Nigar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18, in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

India's Ministry of External Affairs said it "completely rejects" Trudeau's allegations, which it called "absurd" and politically motivated.

"We are a democratic country that adheres to the rule of law,"the ministry said in a statement.

The Indian Ministry accused Canada of providing shelter to "Khalistani terrorists and extremists" whom it described as threatening India's security, saying: "We urge the Canadian government to take prompt and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from its territory.

India expelled a Canadian diplomat, applying the principle of reciprocity, after Ottawa expelled Indian diplomat Pavan Kumar Ray.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie told reporters after Trudeau's remarks that Canada had also expelled an Indian diplomat over the issue.

Melanie added that Canadian officials have limited what they can say publicly on this issue, because investigations into Nigar's murder are continuing so far.

Trudeau also discussed the matter with US President Joe Biden, and British prime minister Rishi Sunak.

"I continue to persistently demand that the government of India cooperate with Canada to shed light on this matter,"Trudeau said.

The White House expressed "deep concern" about Trudeau's allegations.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said: "we keep in regular contact with our Canadian partners . It is important that the Canadian investigations continue and the perpetrators are brought to justice,"he said.

Masked gunmen shot dead Negar, 45, inside his car in a busy parking lot in the city of Surrey, a city about 30 kilometers east of Vancouver.

Nigar is a prominent Sikh separatist leader in the westernmost province of British Columbia, and has previously publicly campaigned for the creation of Khalistan - an independent homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region of India.

India has in the past described Nigar as a terrorist who leads a militant separatist group, accusations that his supporters say are unfounded, adding that Nigar has received threats in the past because of his activity.

Canada also recently suspended negotiations on a free trade agreement with India, providing little detail on the reason, but India pointed to "certain political developments".

Following Trudeau's remarks, several large posters commemorating Nigar appeared at the Guru Nanak temple, in the city of Surrey, east of Vancouver.

Muninder Singh, a spokesman for the Gurdwara Sikh Council of British Columbia, said the community appreciated "at least the prime minister's stand and his admission that there was a foreign hand behind this murder".

Other Sikh groups in Canada, including the World Sikh Organization, welcomed the prime minister's statement, saying Trudeau confirmed what the community already widely believes.

Nigar is the third prominent Sikh to die in sudden circumstances in recent months.

In the UK, Avtar Singh Khanda, said to be the commander of the Khalistan Liberation Force, died in Birmingham in June.

Paramjit Singh panjwar, designated a terrorist by India, was also shot dead in May in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province.

Relations between Delhi and Ottawa are strained due to the increasing pressure exerted by the Indian administration on the governments of three countries with large Sikh populations: Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

India has explicitly said that failure to tackle what it calls "Sikh extremism" would be an obstacle to good relations.

Sikhs are a religious minority that makes up about two percent of India's total population, and some groups have long called for the creation of a separate homeland for Sikhs.

Sikhs, in the seventies of the last century, organized a separatist insurgency in India, which led to the death of thousands before it was suppressed in the following decade.

Since then, the movement has been limited to countries with large Sikh populations, such as Canada and the United Kingdom. There are about 1.4 to 1.8 million Canadians of Indian descent in the country, which also has the largest concentration of Sikhs outside Punjab.

 

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