’Intelligence on Nijjar’s killing shared with India weeks ago’: Trudeau’s fresh allegation

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

New Delhi, Sep 23, 2023: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said Ottawa shared the “credible allegation” that agents of the Indian government were behind the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar with New Delhi “weeks ago”.

 

“Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday with India. We did that many weeks ago,” the Canadian prime minister told a news conference in Ottawa, a Reuters report said.

“We are there to work constructively with India. We hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter,” he added.

Tensions flared between New Delhi and Ottawa earlier this week following Trudeau’s allegations of “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil in June 2023.

Nijjar was shot dead outside a Gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

India rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a retaliatory move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said the United States wanted to see “accountability” over the killing of the Khalistani terrorist.

“We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised,” Blinken told reporters in a press briefing.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US is deeply concerned about the allegations levelled against India by Canada.

“We are deeply concerned about the allegations referenced by Prime Minister Trudeau,” Watson said.

On Thursday, Trudeau said that Canada is not looking to “provoke or cause problems” with India and urged the Indian government to work together to “uncover the truth.”

While speaking on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trudeau said, “We call upon the government of India to take seriously this matter and to work with us to shed full transparency and ensure accountability and justice in this matter.” “We are a country of the rule of law. We are going to continue to do the work necessary to keep Canadians safe and to uphold our values and the international rules-based order. That’s our focus right now.”