This summer, a Sikh leader was shot dead in a suburb of Vancouver. Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing India of complicity in the murder.
According to Trudeau, Canada is investigating “credible” information that Indian agents had a role when Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot to death in June outside a Sikh temple in the Surrey neighborhood of Vancouver. The Sikh leader then lived for some time in exile in the country.
– If any foreign government were to be involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, it is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty, says Trudeau.
Trudeau calls on the Indian government to cooperate in the investigation to solve the murder.
In connection with the new information, Canada announces that it is expelling an Indian diplomat from the country. The country also recently broke off negotiations on a free trade agreement with India.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a prominent voice in Sikhism in Canada. He was also an advocate of an independent Khalistan, the Sikh name for a “pure” Punjab, governed according to Sikh religious laws.
India has accused Nijjar of carrying out terrorist attacks in India, something he himself has denied.