Tag: hardeep nijjar murder

Days After Indians Arrested in Nijjar Murder Case, Canada FM Reiterates Claims of Indian Involvement

“We stand by the allegations that a Canadian was killed on Canadian soil by Indian agents,” Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly said, adding that her goal was to conduct diplomacy with India in private.

New Delhi: After three Indians were arrested by Canada, Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly re-asserted that Ottawa stands by the allegation that Hardeep Singh Nijjar was “killed on Canadian soil by Indian agents”.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, she said, in remarks published by Canadian media, that she wanted to let the investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) continue without any commentary.

“We stand by the allegations that a Canadian was killed on Canadian soil by Indian agents,” she said, adding, “the investigation by the RCMP is being done. I won’t further comment and no other officials from our government will further comment”.

She also said her goal was still to conduct diplomacy with India in private.

Last Friday, Canadian police arrested three Indian nationals saying they were members of an alleged hit squad involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – who the Indian home ministry says was a Khalistani terrorist – in British Columbia last year.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said in September last year that Indian government agents had been involved in the shooting.

India had dismissed the allegations and claimed that Canada had not done enough to halt the activities of Khalistani groups.

Speaking at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, Indian high commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said the deeper problems underneath the recent “negative” developments have to do with Canada’s misunderstanding of “decades-old issues”, which he blames Canadians of Indian origin for resurfacing.

A day after the arrests had been announced, Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had implied that organised crime was behind the Nijjar shootout.

He said that “the fact is a number of gangland people with organised crime links from Punjab have been made welcome in Canada”.

Jaishankar claimed that Canada had continued to allow the entry of criminals from India despite warnings from New Delhi.

“We have been telling Canada, saying, ‘Look, these are wanted criminals from India. You have given them visas, you let them have come, many of them, in false documentation. And yet you allow them to live there.’”

When Canadian federal immigration minister Marc Miller was asked to comment on the immigration status of the three arrested Indians, he declined.

On Jaishankar’s remarks, he noted, “The Indian foreign minister’s entitled to his opinion. It’s just not accurate.”

Canada’s Allegations Will Bring Unwanted Attention on Indian Immigrants Abroad

Western governments will not be oblivious to the growing right-wing activism among the diaspora and the efforts of the BJP and the Modi government to harness that energy for political support and to stave off criticism of India.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has brought Narendra Modi’s exuberant post-G20 atmospherics to a halt by alleging in parliament that agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national, in June this year.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said. The Canadian foreign ministry subsequently expelled an Indian diplomat, who was identified as the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, in Canada.

Trudeau’s announcement was immediately picked up by the international media and generated quite a ripple across social media. This is big because the Canadians have accused the Indian government – not any private vigilante group or organisation – of murder in a foreign land.

Trudeau and Canadian state services seem to have taken this as seriously as the UK did when the Russian émigré Alexander Litvinenko was killed, allegedly on orders of the Kremlin. It is extraordinarily rare for a Western democracy to expel a diplomat from another democracy on these grounds.

In theory, this ought to be a major embarrassment for Modi. Western media headlines will not be flattering for a few days but he is bound to weather this. In fact, the altercation with Canada is likely to serve him politically well at home.

This is because Nijjar, the Sikh leader who was killed, is accused of being a terrorist by India. New Delhi claims that he was the mastermind of the separatist militant group, Khalistan Tiger Force. Nijjar was an accused in several terrorist cases and named in an Interpol notice as a “key conspirator” in a 2007 bombing of a cinema in Punjab.

Modi gains from this because his base has a tendency to celebrate aggressive initiatives against adversaries. Modi’s fans were jubilant when the Indian Air Force conducted airstrikes in the Pakistani territory after the terrorist attack in Pulwama in 2019. The alleged act of organising a terrorist’s assassination in a foreign land would seem quite redolent of Mossad’s ways, which Modi’s fans adore. Expect Modi to be hailed, those involved to become heroes, and perhaps a movie script may follow.

The Indian media will explain this away as Trudeau pandering to the Sikh vote in Canada. Trudeau’s move may not be bereft of political calculation; he may also be caught between the findings of the Canadian law enforcement – that he would have to act on – and the official need to maintain ties with India.

From Canada’s point of view, the Modi government did transgress established norms between political elites. There are processes about dealing with terrorists residing in other countries. Trudeau’s view would be that you just don’t take out people if those processes do not work for you. There are rules to follow and colleagues in the governing class do not create domestic political situations and problems for each other.

That said this controversy should make no difference to the West’s public affirmation of Modi, however indignant they may be in private. Its leaders have been perfectly happy to deal with him and consume his platitudes about democracy, so long as he buys their weapons and provides market access. And this is reflected in their reaction to Trudeau’s move. The US and Australia expressed “deep concern” about the allegation, while the UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly did not name India in his tweet on the matter.

The Washington Post reported that Canada’s allies refused to join Ottawa in publicly condemning the murder.

Unwanted attention

However, this controversy will not be without its costs and consequences for Indian immigrants more broadly. Around 18 million Indians currently live abroad; over 210,000 of them took permanent residency in Canada in 2021 and 2022.

This kind of a story brings unwanted attention on Indians living abroad – as any scrutiny into the activities of a foreign government on home soil is bound to bring along a measure of focus on the diaspora, as Chinese nationals living in Western countries know very well.

Trudeau noted in his statement that his country “was working closely and coordinating with [its] allies on this very serious matter.” Canada is a signatory to the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement along with the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand – and it is not inconceivable that law enforcement authorities in these countries will be together keeping an eye on organised diaspora activity and its links to Indian parties and government in the light of dramatic developments like these.

Western governments will not be oblivious to the growing right-wing activism among the diaspora and the efforts of the BJP and the Modi government to harness that energy for political support and to stave off criticism of India.

The West can arguably live with a measure of diaspora mobilization but not entirely look away when it is disrupting civil peace and the social climate in their own countries.

There have been, to be sure, several unsavoury incidents in recent times involving Indian-origin immigrants. There were bulldozers at a parade in New Jersey that symbolically supported the demolition of Muslim homes in India by the BJP government. There were violent communal clashes in Leicester, the UK, last year. There were Sikh-Hindu clashes in Sydney this year. And reports have emerged of findings by police in Queensland about the defacement of Hindu temples in Australia.

Foreign governments will be keen to assess if such incidents develop organically or were provoked by foreign actors.

Intensified Sikh-Hindu schism

Trudeau’s statement is likely to intensify the divide among various Indian-origin diaspora groups. Sikh and other minority groups will organise against Hindu nationalist organisations and pressure foreign governments to act against them – the Hindu Right will counter-mobilise and lobby. All concerned will be in the crosshairs of Western bureaucratic interest and regulation. If Indians were to bring their domestic politics and divisions into other countries, it is only natural that governments of those lands would be more engaged in their surveillance of diaspora communities.

The Indian middle class can scarcely afford to be drawn into unhelpful transnational political projects, especially when just about every Western country is seeing anti-immigrant opinion on the rise.

Indians are largely known abroad for quietly getting on with their migrant lives. Importing illiberal norms and methods and reshaping the political cultures of host countries in undesirable ways is bound to provoke anti-immigrant sentiment that Indians have managed to avoid so far.

Sushil Aaron is a writer and policy analyst. He tweets @SushilAaron

Who Was Hardeep Nijjar, Whose Killing Has Created a Diplomatic Crisis Between India and Canada?

Justin Trudeau has claimed that there is “credible” intelligence that the Indian government was behind the pro-Khalistan activist’s killing. The Indian government has rejected the allegation.

The killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 19 has gained renewed significance after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that his country’s security agencies had “credible” intelligence that the Indian government was behind the murder. The Indian government has rejected the allegation.

Even at the time of his killing, there was speculation – mostly from Sikh activists in Canada – that Indian agencies could have been behind the killing. Nijjar was the third high-profile Khalistani activist based abroad to die in a span of 45 days. Nijjar himself claimed that he was on a “hit list” and that there was a “pattern” in the killings of Khalistani activists.

Nijjar was the victim of a fatal attack by unidentified assailants on June 19, around 8:30 pm local time. He was exiting the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, Vancouver. Nijjar was a declared terrorist in India, wanted in several cases. He was the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force and worked closely with Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Nijjar had repeatedly denied the allegations levelled against him by Indian agencies, noting that his country of origin has never sought his extradition despite his status as a community leader in Canada.

Before Nijjar, another terrorist wanted in India, Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot dead in Lahore, Pakistan in early May. Panjwar was the chief of the terror outfit Khalistan Commando Force. The third Khalistani activist to die recently was the self-styled chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force, Avtar Singh Khanda. He died on June 15 at a hospital in Birmingham, UK. While his supporters claim that he was poisoned, reports suggest he had been suffering from blood cancer. The UK police later said they were not investigating the death because it was deemed “not suspicious”.

Khanda shot into the limelight after he removed the Indian flag from the Indian high commission in the UK in March 2023, triggering a diplomatic row between India and the UK. Khanda and his associates led a protest in support of Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, culminating in the removal of the tricolour from the Indian high commission.

At the time of Nijjar’s killings, the Canadian police were said to be “looking at two potential motives”, according to the Vancouver Sun. That he was killed because of his Khalistan activism or that it was related to a “more local political dispute in Surrey”.

Who is Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

Nijjar hailed from Bhar Singh Pura in the Phillaur subdivision of Jalandhar district and moved to Canada in 1997, after the militancy in Punjab was quashed. He worked there as a plumber. He eventually became the president of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey.

Not much is known about his direct association with any of the militant outfits in Punjab but he rose to prominence after landing in Canada.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in September 2020 designated Hardeep Singh Nijjar as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The NIA mentioned Nijjar’s status as an “absconder” and sought assistance from the public to know his whereabouts. The NIA had declared a cash award of Rs 10 lakh on him.

In 2020, the NIA also attached Nijjar’s immovable property (land) in Bhar Singh Pura in Jalandhar. It also attached the property of his associate Pannun, who heads Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), in Amritsar.

In 2018, the NIA registered an FIR against Nijjar in Delhi. The FIR says he was conspiring and planning to carry out a major terrorist attack in India. It also claimed he was engaged in activities which were prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, such as sourcing finance to procure arms/ammunition and training Sikh youth for carrying out terrorist activities in India.

The FIR further mentioned that Nijjar had certain associates in India who had surveyed the gatherings of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at certain places, including Punjab, intending to target them with terror attacks. His name also figured in the killing of Jalandhar-based senior RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja in 2016. The case is under investigation.

Another FIR lodged against Nijjar at Police Station Dakha, Ludhiana Rural, Punjab in 2016 was handed over to the NIA in 2018. As per this FIR, Nijjar, along with the members of the proscribed terrorist organisation Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), promoted disharmony between different groups on grounds of religion and had plans to revive terrorism in Punjab.

Also Read: Tableau on Indira Gandhi’s Killing: Jaishankar Slams Canada for ‘Giving Space’ to Khalistan Separatists

Rivalry with another Canadian Khalistan activist?

In Canada, Nijjar was in the spotlight after the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted in the Air India Bombing of 1985. Malik was also shot dead in Surrey, on June 15, 2022. Nijjar and Malik were reportedly at loggerheads over the printing of the Sikh holy book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, in Surrey – a violation of the edict issued by the Akal Takht, the highest seat of Sikh religious power.

The Vancouver Sun reported that this year, Malik’s son filed a lawsuit against Nijjar to get back a special printing press handed over to the Surrey gurdwara in August 2020 by his father and an associate named Balwant Singh Bandher.

However, when Malik was killed, Nijjar told the media that he had no dispute with him – barring the issue of printing the Sri Guru Granth Sahib against the directions of the Akal Takht.

The Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia where Nijjar was shot dead. Photo: Google Street View/Google Earth.

Nijjar’s last interview

Incidentally, days before his killing, Nijjar gave an interview to Surrey-based radio broadcaster and journalist Gurpreet Singh claiming that his name was also on a “hit list” and that there was a pattern in the killings of Khalistani activists.

Speaking to The Wire, Gurpreet Singh said that Nijjar could see his death coming and shared his fears in the interview. “After the killing of Paramjit Singh Panjwar in Lahore, Pakistan, last month, Nijjar issued a statement asking the Sikh community to remain vigilant. He had also held a remembrance prayer in the memory of Panjwar at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where he was the president,” he said.

Even a few hours before his killing, in his last speech, he spoke about how the Sikh community was under attack on foreign shores. “You see it has been just a month and look at the killings. We need to be vigilant. I am already on the enemy’s target,” he said in the interview, which has gone viral.

On the “pattern” of killings, Nijjar had said, “Earlier Harmeet Singh was killed in Pakistan and then Panjwar. This is the handiwork of contract killers. Anybody who talks of their rights is being targeted.”

Gurpreet Singh said that not many know that Nijjar was the man who started langar sewa (free food) for all international students, irrespective of their origin in 2019. “He also held special prayers for indigenous children killed in Kamloops in Canada and for Muslims killed in the Christchurch bombings in 2019 in New Zealand”, he said.

The radio broadcaster said that last year, a rally was held for the release of Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba in which Nijjar strongly argued for his release.

While Khalistan sympathisers are angered by the killing of Nijjar, the general sentiment among the Punjabi diaspora is that he was a polite person. “Soon after his killing, local MP Sukh Dhaliwal from Surrey-Newton, led by the Punjabi diaspora, blocked the highway leading to the gurdwara in protest. There is a pattern in these killings, which cannot be ignored. Nijjar was getting threats on the dark web. He had shared this fact with his close circle,” said one of his acquaintances, who did not wish to be named.

On the NIA declaring him an “absconder”, Gurpreet Singh said that Nijjar was already put on a ‘no-fly list’ within Canada itself. “How could he fly to another country or flee somewhere, when he was not even allowed to fly between Vancouver and Toronto in Canada?” he questioned.

The fact that some Indian right-wing social media accounts had celebrated Nijjar’s killing also prompted accusations that Indian agencies were involved in the murder. Gurpreet Singh said it is shocking to see such behaviour. “In fact, some social media users were naming the next targets openly but the Indian government is a mute spectator. Its silence is promoting such trolls,” he added.

Note: This is an updated version of an article that was originally published on June 21, 2023.