Sanjay Kumar Verma

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.”

US Urges India’s Probe Into Pannun Plot Proceed ‘Quickly and Transparently’

US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, also said that the Biden administration took the Pannun plot allegations “incredibly seriously and have raised it at the highest levels with India”.

New Delhi: The United States emphasised the need for an Indian high-level panel to “quickly and transparently” investigate allegations that agents of the Indian government orchestrated an assassination attempt on a Sikh US citizen, ensuring that justice is served.

In November, US prosecutors alleged that an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta tried to hire a hitman to kill a man who is believed to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil at the behest of an Indian government official.

Gupta is currently facing extradition to the US after being arrested in the Czech Republic.

Pannun has dual citizenship of the US and Canada and works as a lawyer for a group banned in India named ‘Sikhs for Justice’. The Union home affairs ministry has declared Pannun a terrorist.

At a public hearing on Wednesday (March 20) of the US congressional committee on foreign affairs on the Pakistan elections, Democrat congressman from Minnesota Dean Phillips quizzed a senior state department official about the accusation made by US prosecutors, asking if the department has considered placing sanctions on Indian officials.

“The administration of course recently placed sanctions on more than 500 individuals relating to the killing of Alexei Navalny in Russia on Russian soil. So my question is, are any similar sanctions on or travel bans being considered for those who we believe may be responsible for the attempted murder of Mr Pannun?”, asked Phillips.

The US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, stated that the Biden administration took the allegations “incredibly seriously and have raised it at the highest levels with India”.

“We are at the moment working with India to encourage India to hold accountable those responsible for this this terrible crime,” Lu asserted.

Noting that India has announced a committee of inquiry, Lu declared, “We ask them to work quickly and transparently to make sure justice is done”.

Lu didn’t indicate with his remarks that India had conveyed any findings from the committee’s investigation.

In the November indictment, US prosecutors named the Indian official accused of recruiting Gupta only as ‘CC-1’ but said his identity is known to the US government.

The official is also said to have described himself as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in “security management” and “intelligence”.

The indictment says the alleged murder plot was thwarted by US law enforcement officials.

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed senior officials that India had told the US that “rogue” operatives not authorised by the government were behind the alleged plot.

The news agency claimed that that one of the people directly involved in the plot is no longer working for India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing; that he is still a government employee; and that the government has not initiated criminal action against him.

“New Delhi has informed US authorities about the findings from the government-appointed panel set up to probe the allegations, the people said,” Bloomberg stated.

India is yet to publicly announce that its probe into the alleged plot is complete, or even offer any information on what progress it has made.

When contacted by The Wire after the Bloomberg report was published, the US embassy in India said it had nothing to share now. The external affairs ministry did not yet respond to a request for comment.

The US state department has previously said it looked forward to seeing the result of India’s inquiry into the allegations, though the US government has not shared any details about the investigation either.

US prosecutors had also linked the alleged murder plot to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada last year in their indictment.

Nijjar was gunned to death outside a gurdwara near Vancouver. He too was designated a terrorist by the Indian government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in public last year that his government had “credible reasons” to believe that Indian government agents were involved in Nijjar’s killing.

The allegations triggered a diplomatic row between the two countries, which led to the withdrawal of over 40 Canadian diplomats and restrictions on Indian visas for Canadian nationals.

The Indian government has asserted it is not cooperating with Canada in the investigation into Nijjar’s death.

Indian ambassador to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said “it would be extremely difficult” for India to help unless Canadian authorities shared “relevant and specific evidence” with their Indian counterparts.

This article was republished with new information at 12:55 am on March 21.

India’s High Commissioner to Canada Says ‘No Relevant Info’ Provided Yet on Nijjar Investigation

Referring to reports that Canadian officials had intercepted incriminating communication between Indian diplomats, high commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said that “conversations between two diplomats are secure by all international law”.

New Delhi: India’s high commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said that Canadian authorities have not yet provided India with concrete evidence of Indian involvement in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s death.

“There is no specific or relevant information provided in this case for us to assist them in the investigation,” Verma was quoted as saying by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

He added: “Where is the evidence? Where is the conclusion of the investigation? … I would go a step further and say now the investigation has already been tainted. A direction has come from someone at a high level to say India or Indian agents are behind it.”

Verma was referring to Canada’s allegations that Indian government agents were possibly behind the fatal shooting of pro-Khalistan activist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver in June.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly referred to the allegations in his country’s parliament in September.

Trudeau later said that his government had provided India with what he said were credible allegations “many weeks” prior to his statements in parliament.

Relations between the two countries have soured over the issue, and India ordered 41 Canadian diplomats to leave the country and temporarily suspended its visa operations in Canada.

India, which has accused Nijjar of being a terrorist, denies the allegations.

Officials in Canada reportedly intercepted communications between Indian diplomats that implicated India in Nijjar’s death.

But Verma told The Globe and Mail that conversations between diplomats are protected and cannot be released publicly.

“You are talking about illegal wiretaps and talking about evidence. Conversations between two diplomats are secure by all international law,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Show me how you captured these conversations. Show me that someone did not mimic the voice,” Verma continued to say.

US ambassador to Canada David Cohen said that intelligence inputs from the Five Eyes network contributed to Trudeau’s decision to go public with the allegations against India.

More recently, Australia’s domestic spy chief Mike Burgess had said that there was “no reason to dispute” claims by Canada of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing.

Canada has not yet publicly revealed the information in its possession that led Trudeau to make public the allegations against India.

Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar previously said that India was open to looking at specific evidence were Canadian authorities to share any.

“We told the Canadians saying that look, if you have something specific, if you have something relevant, you know, let us know – we are open to looking at it, he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Jaishankar and his opposite number in Canada Melanie Joly have recently said that they are in touch with each other.

“I feel that there is room for diplomacy here. I know that my counterpart in Canada has also expressed the same position. So, we have been in touch,” PTI quoted Jaishankar as saying.

Also Read: ‘Prickly Nationalism’: From a G20 High to a Post-Canada Low

India cited security threats to its missions in Canada when it suspended visa services in the country in September.

Soon after Nijjar’s death in June, Verma was named in a pro-Khalistan poster blaming the Indian government for Nijjar’s death and was called a “killer in Toronto”.

In his interview with The Globe and Mail, Verma said the threats against him were “hate speech” and an “incitement to violence”.

“I am concerned about my safety and security. I am concerned about the safety and security of my consul generals. God forbid if something happens,” he said.

But despite the downturn in relations, Verma told The Globe and Mail that India would like to expand business ties with Canada and that it would welcome a delegation of Canadian businesspeople to India.

He also said that a business deal between the countries that Canada suspended days before the G20 meeting in New Delhi earlier this year “should be signed as soon as possible so that traders and investors can take advantage of that”.

When asked by the newspaper what steps were needed to repair ties between the two countries, Verma said he did not oppose Canada’s investigation into Nijjar’s death but reiterated the Indian government’s stance that Canada must not let pro-Khalistan activities take place there.

“Don’t allow your soil to be used by a group of Canadian citizens who want to dismember India … Who want to challenge the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India,” Verma was quoted as saying.