4-5-2024 (OTTAWA) The Ottawa police have pressed charges against three individuals for their alleged involvement in the brutal murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh separatist leader, Canadian media outlets reported on the 3rd of May, citing court documents.
The grisly incident unfolded in June of the previous year when Nijjar, aged 45, was gunned down in a brazen attack outside a Sikh temple in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, a locale known for its sizeable Sikh community.
The news of the arrests comes hot on the heels of the White House voicing grave concerns over the purported role of Indian intelligence agencies in orchestrating assassination plots on Canadian and American soil, a claim that has sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles.
The presence of Sikh separatist groups operating within Canada has long been a thorn in the side of New Delhi, with Nijjar himself being branded a “terrorist” by the Indian authorities.
In a stunning revelation last September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canadian law enforcement agencies were actively investigating allegations linking agents of the Indian government to the murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. Unsurprisingly, New Delhi vehemently rejected Trudeau’s assertions, dismissing them as “absurd.”
CTV and Global News were the first to break the story of the arrests on May 3, with CTV reporting that all three suspects are Indian nationals.
Brace yourselves for further developments as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) prepares to hold a media briefing on the case at 3.30 pm EDT (3.30 am on May 4, Singapore time).
Attempts to obtain comments from both the RCMP and the Indian mission in Ottawa have proven unsuccessful thus far.
Canada had been exerting pressure on India to cooperate in the investigation into Nijjar’s murder. Last November, American authorities dropped a bombshell, alleging that an Indian government official had orchestrated the plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
While Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who oversees the nation’s law enforcement agencies, refrained from directly confirming the arrests, he did inform reporters that the probe into Nijjar’s murder remained “an active police operation.”
Earlier reports from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cited a source claiming that investigators had identified the suspects within Canada several months ago and had been keeping them under close surveillance ever since.
