Montreal, Canada – Sikh leaders in North America welcomed the latest arrest within the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, however allegations that the Indian authorities was concerned proceed to gasoline questions and unrest.
Canadian police introduced late final week that three Indian nationals had been arrested in Canada for his or her involvement within the June killing of Nijjar, a distinguished chief of the Sikh group in British Columbia’s westernmost province.
Police added that their investigation into Nijjar’s taking pictures demise will proceed, together with whether or not “there are any hyperlinks to the Indian authorities.”
Moninder Singh, spokesman for the BC Gurdwaras Council, a coalition of Sikh temples within the province, informed Al Jazeera there was “some aid” that an arrest had been made within the case.
However Singh, who knew Nijjar personally, stated the query of Indian state involvement “looms massive” over the Sikh group, which numbers about 770,000 individuals throughout Canada – the most important Sikh diaspora outdoors India.
“International interference is actual. The assassination plan is actual,” Singh stated, including that it was essential to unravel what India’s position was.
“All this should be revealed,” he continued. “There (are) many the explanation why that is very, essential for public security in Canada, together with deterring India from persevering with to conduct such a operation.”
Tensions between Canada and India
Tensions between Canada and India spiked in September after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced that authorities have been investigating “credible allegations of a potential hyperlink” between Indian authorities brokers and Nijjar’s homicide.
Nijjar was fatally shot on June 18, 2023, outdoors the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, a temple in Surrey, British Columbia, the place he served as president.
India has vehemently denied allegations of involvement, calling them “absurd”. It additionally accused Nijjar of participating in “terrorism” – a declare his supporters have denied.
Nijjar was a number one advocate of what’s often known as the Khalistan motion, the Sikh marketing campaign for a sovereign state in India’s Punjab area.
Whereas largely dormant inside India itself, Sikh separatism is essentially seen as a menace by the Indian authorities, which has urged Western nations to crack down on leaders of the Khalistan motion within the diaspora.
Canada has harbored “Khalistan terrorists and extremists” who “proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs stated when it rejected Trudeau’s accusations in September.
However Sikh leaders in Canada stated they’ve confronted threats for years and accused the Indian authorities of making an attempt to silence them.
Nijjar’s killing exacerbated these long-standing tensions, and new stories emerged of the involvement of Indian officers in different alleged plots to hurt distinguished Sikh leaders in Canada and america.
Risk stories
For instance, in late November, the US Division of Justice introduced fees in opposition to 52-year-old Indian nationwide Nikhil Gupta for the botched try and assassinate Sikh American activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The plot to kill Pannun, one other Sikh separatist chief, was organized in coordination with an Indian authorities worker and others, in accordance with the Justice Division.
Final week, The Washington Submit reported that US intelligence companies had decided that the operation focusing on Pannun had been accepted by the then head of India’s overseas intelligence company, often known as the Analysis and Evaluation Wing, or RAW.
The Indian authorities dismissed the allegations as “unwarranted” and “baseless”, in accordance with media stories.
Nonetheless, human rights teams stated India “should do far more than deny” in such circumstances.
“India’s alleged involvement in assassination plots within the US and Canada suggests a brand new and infamous spike in extrajudicial executions,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, stated in December.
Pritpal Singh, an activist and founding father of the American Sikh Caucus, was one of many main Sikh leaders to be told of threats in opposition to them previously yr.
Brokers of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited Pritpal, who relies within the state of California, in June to warn him.
In a press release to Al Jazeera this week, Pritpal stated he appreciated the “unwavering dedication of Canadian and US legislation enforcement” to the investigation into Nijjar’s killing and the surveillance of Sikhs.
“The Indian authorities’s alleged involvement in these heinous acts is a blatant violation of worldwide norms and human rights. It’s fully unacceptable for any authorities to have interaction in extrajudicial killings and suppress dissenting voices overseas,” he stated.
Pritpal additionally demanded accountability for threats in opposition to Sikh activists. “We should insist on American justice in opposition to these concerned in India’s alleged murder-for-hire scheme focusing on People on American soil,” he stated.
“It’s crucial that these circumstances be prosecuted on American soil by america Division of Justice to forestall these perpetrators from incriminating themselves.”
India attacked Canada
Nonetheless, India continues to disclaim any involvement within the alleged conspiracies, criticizing Canada specifically for its strategy to Nijjar’s killing.
The Indian Excessive Fee in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s requests for touch upon the case.
After stories emerged on Friday that Canadian authorities had made the arrests, Indian Exterior Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stated the Canadian authorities had a “political compulsion” guilty India.
In an interview with Indian information web site The Financial Instances this week, Jaishankar additionally accused Canada of “offering a haven for organized crime.”
“Now we have informed Canadians time and time once more that in case you truly permit such forces to arrange store and community, it is going to injury their very own society. However to date I do not assume that recommendation has been nicely heeded.” said the minister.
Canadian authorities rejected the concept that they’d allowed criminal activity to unfold. Specialists additionally say lots of the people India considers “terrorists” usually are not breaking any Canadian legal guidelines.
“Canada is a rustic ruled by the rule of legislation, with a robust and unbiased judicial system, in addition to a elementary dedication to guard all its residents,” Trudeau stated throughout a Sikh group occasion in Toronto on Saturday.
“I do know that many Canadians, significantly members of the Sikh group, are feeling uneasy and maybe scared proper now. “Each Canadian has a elementary proper to stay in Canada safely and with out discrimination or threats of violence,” added Trudeau.
Partaking interview on @EconomicTimesworkplace. https://t.co/DO32w3inVW
—Dr. S. Jaishankar (Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrSJaishankar) May 6, 2024
Utilizing “proxies”
Final week, the pinnacle of Canada’s public inquiry into overseas interference additionally launched an interim report that accused Indian officers in addition to their representatives in Canada of participating in “a spread of actions that search to affect Canadian communities and politicians.”
This contains efforts to “align Canada’s place with India’s pursuits on key points, significantly in gentle of the Indian authorities’s notion of Canadian supporters of an unbiased Sikh homeland,” stated Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue.
The report states that India “doesn’t distinguish between lawful, pro-Khalistani political advocacy and the comparatively minor Canadian violent extremism of Khalistani”.
Subsequently, it “considers anybody who subscribes to Khalistan separatism to be an outrageous menace to India”.
Hogue additionally discovered that Indian officers more and more relied on Canada and Canadian proxies and their contacts to hold out overseas interventions.
“This obscures any express hyperlink between India and overseas intervention actions. The representatives are involved and dealing with Indian intelligence officers in India and Canada and obtain express and implicit directions from them,” the report stated.
“Galvanizing” the Sikh group.
In the end, Sikh leaders referred to as for a full investigation of anybody who could also be concerned in threats in opposition to members of their communities, together with Indian state officers.
“I can not converse to the motivation of the Indian state whether it is discovered to be behind these heinous assaults,” stated Kavneet Singh, chair of the Sikh American Authorized Protection and Schooling Fund (SALDEF). based civil rights group.
“However they’ve a protracted historical past of stifling free speech and focusing on those that converse out in dissent.”
Kavneet informed Al Jazeera that the Sikh American group has been advocating on the federal and state ranges “for higher laws to higher assist legislation enforcement perceive, determine and prosecute” circumstances of transnational repression.
He added that regardless of the threats, the historical past of the Sikh group “has not been a historical past of dwelling in concern”.
As an alternative, “it is one among understanding that there are potential threats, and that is (one among) being vigilant,” Kavneet stated. “In actual fact, I feel it truly emboldens the group and our diasporic allies.
“Whereas there could also be political variations between communities, finally we stand collectively when group members and/or our establishments are threatened by overseas or home actors.”
Singh echoed this sentiment on the BC Gurdwaras Council, stressing that the Indian authorities is making an attempt to “silence” Sikh voices within the diaspora advocating for a sovereign state.
Singh was one among 5 Sikh leaders — together with Nijjar — who have been warned in 2022 by the Nationwide Safety Division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about threats to their lives.
He informed Al Jazeera on Tuesday that Canadian authorities had informed him over the previous two months that the menace in opposition to him “continues to be actual” and that he ought to keep away from massive public gatherings.
“If we discuss this subject (Khalistan) and we lead the group on this subject within the diaspora, I feel these threats will all the time be there now. There isn’t a manner we will ever return,” he stated.
“When the assassination of Hardeep occurred, it actually made it clear to a few of us that it was actual. That is a brand new actuality for us and a brand new actuality that it could occur at any time.”
